Dangerous Love
by dark-prisim
Summary: Started from where the movie left off, Peter and Gamora slowly build up their dangerous romance. What happens when family issues arise? How far will love take them? (Rated T for swearing and further scenes)
1. Knowhere at all

I slowly weave my way through The Milano's frontier leather seats as the Peter level headedly flies through the galaxy, and finally able to maintain my balance after all the chaos we've been through on this ship in a matter of just a few days. Everyone is seated – with the expectations of Groot of course.

Placing a hand on Drax's shoulder on the way, he looks up, and we share an amnestic grin. We finally found our peace after the war and somehow managed to be labelled allies. No. _Friends_, no matter how incredibly strange that sounds. I never committed any crimes against him and despised Ronan myself, and he finally realised that.

Continuing to gradually walk, I rest one arm against Peter's front chair and place the other on my hip as my eyes flit across the galaxy. I look back, expecting to see an eight feet tall Groot seated to the right but found nothing. Luckily, Ronan did not manage to completely destroy our beloved, poorly punctuated tree friend.

Speaking of which, I throw a glance towards Rocket who thoughtfully nods his head at me and looks elsewhere. I believe he didn't realise that I was watching as he does something completely out of his character and looks down with an emotion of care and warmth at the silver pot filled with a growing Groot numbly making small (and, must I add, adorable) sounds.

Rocket obviously adored all of friends, although he did not show it. I suppose he expresses his love and gratitude in foreign ways. For instance, "You're a fucking fucktard" in his language most likely means, "You're my best friend". Well, at least I hope it did.

The Orb is restored to Nova Prime and locked under heavy security and although we did not receive an award we felt good. We all felt good about _doing_ something good for once. We created peace with our enemies from Nova and slaughtered Ronan the Accuser together to save billions of innocent lives. Not only in Xander, but across the galaxies.

"What should we do next?" Peter wondered aloud, concentrated on flying the Milano, his eyes transfixed to the galaxies zooming images. "Something good?" he suggests. "Something bad?" he continues, and as no one responds - "Bit a' both?"

I frown in thought as I stare down at Peter, studying his somewhat handsome features, before finally making up my mind. I mentally curse myself for thinking such thoughts.

Peter shared some emotion for me, as he had confessed back on Yondu's ship. And that time where he almost kissed me. He also saved my life. Maybe I did too. But I would never let myself to admit it. And who knows where it could lead us, especially with the positions we hold now. Thanos surely would be craving to find me.

"We'll follow your lead," I confirm and tilt my head down with a sly grin, "Star Lord". I silently observe his reaction, watching him obviously attempt avoid smiling and look my way.

"Bit of both." Peter finally decides, pressing a few buttons and twisting different knobs. The ship starts to collect power charge differing backwards for a slight moment before rushing forward in a quick rush, and making me slip back in to my chair, overwhelmed with the force.

"Where are we going?" Drax questions from the back of the ship.

"_Knowhere_ at all" Peter smirks, chuckling at his own 'joke'.

"Then where do you lead us?" Drax asks, clearly not understanding Peter's concepts.

"Starlin's Bar, Knowhere" Peter sighs. "Must I explain everything I say?"

"Yes. Everything you say makes no sense" Drax argues.

"Everything I say makes no sense? That's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard!" Peter exclaims. "Most ridiculous thing you've heard?" Rocket laughs slightly.

"Second most ridiculous thing I've heard!" corrects himself, taking an abrupt turn to the right causing the ship to turn on a 180 degree turn before swinging back.

"What's the first?" I ask, suddenly curious as I cling on to the armrests watching items fly and slide across the floor at Peter's steering skills.

"When Rocket decided it was an idiotic move to save the universe, and instead give the Orb to Ronan. Must I quote - 'What has the universe ever done for you?'" he answers and takes another sharp turn.

"Will you stop driving the damn ship like a fucking drunk?!" Rocket insists as he struggles to cling on to Groot's pot, the situation not exactly improving with the items falling back in to their spots.

"Excuse me, this is A class skills" Peter smiles smugly, spinning the wheel carelessly causing the ship to go berserk spinning in multiple loops.

"Peter!" I frown as leftover food lands on my face. Some lumpy cream I didn't have time to recognise.

"I am going to rip your arms off with my bare hands" Rocket states, dodging a flying book. "Hah" he mumbles proud of himself, but then the book comes back and hits him in the face as we surge through a third loop. "Quill, you asshole!"

Peter turns towards me, once the ship is flying steady, leaning forward causing me to frown in confusion. "Is that peach?" he raises a brow and swipes a finger down my cheek, collecting the food on his finger. He tastes the substance and winces immediately, a sour expression on his face.

"Nope not peach. Definitely not peach. What the fuck was that?" Pulling back with disgust.

"Your ship is still filthy" I frown, swiping the 'food' off my face my hand.

"Is anyone listening to me?!" Rocket complains in disbelief.

"I am" Drax says.

"I can't believe no one is listening to me!" Rocket continues in utter despair.

I start to help Peter control The Milano on my board, sliding controls and jabbing buttons.

"Is this the silent treatment?" Rocket goes on. Groot mumbles his little sounds, and Rocket hold the pot up to his face watching the stick figure quietly and forgetting completely about his 'despair'.

"Doesn't this look familiar" Peter says as the head of a decapitated Celestial comes in to view.

"Knowhere" I say quietly, and can't help but smile even though we didn't have the best memories here.

"What joy" Peter mumbles, and I turn to look at him. We both stare at each other for quite some time. I smile slightly and glance in my lap, returning my attention back to the front. I can tell Peter is still watching me.

"Let's go" Peter smirks, turning back to the front and forcing the ship to surge forward once more.

* * *

**Thanks for reading this chapter! There will be major Peter/Gamora in the next chapter; this chapter was just to explain what is going on at the moment. **

**And I would be utterly ecstatic if you would like me to continue. Maybe a review? It only takes 30 seconds of your time! Thanks! **


	2. Fooled Around & Fell in Love

**Just to make this clear, to avoid any confusion, each chapter will switch POV's. For instance, chapter one was Gamora's view and this chapter is in Peter's :) this story also isn't all about Peter/Gamora. There is going to be a whole lot more **_**and**_** maybe even a sequel if people like it.**

**Thanks for the follows! And if you have any feedback or criticism, please review! Only takes 30 seconds of your time!**

* * *

_It was finally summer time. Where tall redwoods spread dappled shadows across tinkling streams, birds sing from their hidden nests and the air is spicy with the scent of flowers… and my mom's famous apple pie. The song 'December 1963' dimly played on the radio by some band my mother adored, was it the Jersey Boys?_

"_Sup' mom" I greeted idly, throwing myself over the couch and flicking on the fuzzy television to watch one of my favourite shows; Who's the Boss?. Starring the absolutely gorgeous Alyssa Milano._

"_Peter Jason Quill," my mother swivels around from the kitchen with a soapy dinner plate in hand. She wore a damp apron and frown on her features, making her seem much older. She rarely frowned. "Get those filthy shoes of the sofa now, honey" she sighs, clearly not able to stay angry for long. And I mean, come on, who would want to stay angry at me?_

_I sigh and remove my feet off the couch. She was always getting angry lately at the smallest things and I didn't even know why. She kept breaking down and crying, and I once caught her smoking cigarettes on our front porch while looking at some old photos. Her skin started to grow whiter in all this summer heat, and I was worried. Is she sick?_

_After a long silence I finally decide to ask, "Mom?" _

"_Yes, honey"_

"_What happened to dad?"_

_A plate clatters against the tiles and pieces of glass spray everywhere. "He- … Your father- ", she stops to clear her throat. "Your father was an angel, Peter. You look just like him" she says quietly. _

"_I wish you got to see more of him, but people come and go. I don't want you to think he is a bad person because he is not. He treated me right. He treated us right. And that's all you need to know" she says, and I could hear her voice crack. _

_I stare down into my lap and frown. Our dad just ditched us?! Mom turns back to look at me with a sympathetic expression, "Peter…"_

* * *

"Peter!" Gamora shouts with slight concern to get my attention, causing me to jump slightly in my seat and turn to her. The sky was darkening colors and we landed the ship in Knowhere for the night after spending a 'bit of both' day at Starlin's Bar.

Drax offered to look after Groot and my mixtapes back in the ship – which I threatened if he lost or ruined them, he would be in a huge fucking mess. He said he needed some time to sharpen his daggers or whatever and Rocket needed a break from babysitting Groot, so we all agreed. And he actually managed to take good care of everything. Groot even had grown to the height of Rocket and width of my arm.

"I was just – never mind …" I sigh, as Rocket laughs hysterically on the table behind us and holds a full glass of alcohol. He drinks way too much for the size he is. He caused like, five or six bar fights today, and it was a hassle breaking everyone up so we decided to leave early.

"You looked distant." Gamora informs as she stands up, and walks over to the edge of the ship to stare at the blooming explosion of the galaxies star constellations and bright colors.

I don't want to say anything about my thoughts and go to join her.

"Did you ever meet Kevin Bacon?" Gamora asks and looks at me. The question caught me off guard.

"Uh" I try to think of a proper answer. "We saw each other every Saturday night, before dinner when I was on Earth" I nod at her. And she nods back with understanding, and totally absorbed. I am definitely not going to explain the concept of movies and television to her. Not right now anyway.

There is a long silence between us, and we return our attentions back to the galaxy. I don't think I could ever get sick of this amazing view; small pinpricks of white light in the purple canvas sky. As a kid, I loved astronomy. All the planets, velvet skies and most importantly the stars. That's one of the reasons why I'm widely known as Star-Lord. Yes, widely known.

"Peter," Gamora says, continuing to stare into the galaxy.

"Yeah"

"You know, just because you saved my life –"

"Twice" I correct her.

Gamora sighs, rolls her eyes and continues, "Doesn't mean that I am just another... girl"

I stare at her for a long time, trying to figure out her twisted emotions and motives. Why did she so suddenly bring this up? Was it because we had our little um, moment here? When I first saw her, I thought she was beautiful. In a strangely different and dangerous way; with her odd green skin, bottomless brown eyes and flaming hair. Most of the women I met were too quiet, too boisterous, or even too pink. But Gamora was just… _different_.

"But you're not just another girl" I say, and smile softly at her.

Gamora blinks twice and looks elsewhere with a big smile. She looks back at me with her head tilted, and those big alien eyes scanning me, trying to work me out. "You're really are a piece of work, Quill" she says and shakes her head lightly.

"I am not just a piece of work, I am a piece of art" I smirk and lean against the iron railing of the ship.

"Then what makes me so special?" Gamora asks.

I turn my body towards her, "Your green. And that's amazingly awesome" I answer. She punches me in arm. Hard. "It was a compliment" I mumble and rub the arm she damaged. That's defiantly gonna leave a bruise.

"You're smart." I say, seriously. "But not the Einstein kind of smart."

She bunches her eyebrows together, "Einstein?"

"Famous intelligent dude from Earth…" I mumble. "But you always know the right the thing to say and you know all these things that we don't. I don't even know how you manage to be mentally capable to hold all your anger, and all that emotion inside of you. Especially after what happened with your… Thanos. And plus your ass looks great when kicking the shit out everyone."

Another punch.

"It was a compliment" I repeat and inch backwards slightly.

"Well maybe your compliments offend me" she says with a smug look on her face.

"I wonder how you'll take criticism" I frown with wonder and she laughs slightly. Deciding to test it out, I say "You can't dance." And just as she was about to punch me once more, I grab her wrist in time and place her hand on top of my shoulder. She just looks confused, which makes me smile. "I'll teach you"

I click a button down on the cassette player connected to my waist, and unplug the headphones. Fooled Around and Fell in Love by Elvin Bishop slowly started to fill the atmosphere. I didn't usually listen to this song as much as the others, so it kind of felt special in this moment.

I wrapped my arm cautiously around her waist, which she jumped back in reaction. "Relax" I smiled, slightly laughing as she realized I obviously didn't want to harm her. Gamora blinked viciously and allowed me to touch her. I returned my arm to the small of her back and slowly reached out for her hand. She seemed really uncomfortable.

I started to lead her gently with the slow beat of the song. She glanced down, trying to replicate my movements. Her feet stumbled with the pace and she fell against my chest. I smiled at her patiently and helped her up.

"You're rushing it. It's not a chore" I tell her, feeling her tense up. "It feels like it" she mutters. I pull her closer towards my body, "Just listen to the music and let your feet do the work. Forget about it even"

Her footwork improves slightly, as her eyes wander upwards in thought as she listens to the words of the song.

_I must have been through about a million girls  
I'd love 'em then I'd leave 'em alone  
I didn't care how much they cried, no sir  
Their tears left me cold as a stone_

"Is this what _you_ do to all girls?' she asks with a mischievous grin, referring to the lyrics. She starts to calmly dance and forget about how horrid she is.

"Hey, look you're improving!" I change topic, incredibly enthusiastic. She rolls her eyes at me but continues to smile. "This song is cheesy" she admits.

_I fooled around and fell in love  
It used to be when I'd see a girl that I liked  
I'd get out my book and write down her name  
But when the grass got a little greener over on the other side  
I'd just tear out that page_

"I know, but it's the only song on this playlist that we're able to dance to" I say.

We continue to dance, and her footwork grows graceful and slow as if she was an actual woman. Okay, she is an actual woman, but she does not act like one. She's supposed to be a warrior and an assassin and blah, blah, blah…

"Is it true?" Gamora asks suddenly, awaking me from my thoughts, as I wrap my other hand around her waist.

"What true?"

"All those things you said about me?" she wonders and stares in to my eyes, seeking for the truth.

Maybe she really did care what I thought about her. "Yes, I really do think your ass looks great" I smirk, spinning her around and lowering her softly as the song slows.

Our faces are inches apart, and I can her quiet breaths that became short and rigid. The background sounds seem to blur and the atmosphere becomes almost cloudy and humid. "Why would I lie to you? I'm like super righteous" I whisper with a small shrug. She raises a brow, a look screaming "Really, Peter?".

_I fooled around and fell in love  
Free, on my own is the way I used to be  
Ah, but since I met you baby, love's got a hold on me  
It's got a hold on me now, I can't let go of you baby_

I lean forward, closer to her lips. I can almost feel the racing pule in her veins as our lips slightly graze across each other. The temperature grows warmer between us, our bodies pressed against each other.

"I'm Groot!" a familiar voice interrupts belonging to a five foot Groot missing a silver pot.

Rocket trips out from the wall and curses under his breath as Drax silently backs away.

"I know they going to smooch, Groot!" Rocket exclaims, turning towards his friend.

Gamora pushes herself off of me and disappears inside the ship muttering things under breath about "Ridiculous Quill" and "Nonsense lies". We were having a moment there. Those bastards…

I quickly pause the music out of frustration.

"How long were you _spying_ on us?" I accuse staring down at Rocket.

Rocket runs his paw through his fur and shrugs; "Only around for the best parts" he smirks, taking a swing from his bottle of liquor.

"Actually we have been here the whole time" Drax confirms, and I watch as Rocket throws him a dirty look.

I sigh, running a hand over my face and snatch the bottle off of Rocket. "Rocket. Go to sleep"

"I'm Groot!" catches my attention.

I look down across towards the voice. "He's growing?" I say with a huge smile, suddenly forgetting about the 'moment' a few seconds ago. He wasn't as tall as I was but at least it was progress.

"I know! I came to tell you imbeciles but found you goin' –", he pauses to make irritating kissing noises and motions with his paws. "Nom, nom, nom" he demonstrates.

I just stare him, silently waiting for him to finish. "Done?" I say and knock past him, causing him to fall backwards on his back.

I hear him chuckle and Groot sighs before I slam the door to my room.

Then I came up with an idea.


	3. Suck the Joy

**This chapter will be slightly shorter than the others because I've had to re-write so many times! I've also been working on my other fanfic, _Peter's Sister_, which will also be updating more frequently. **

**If you have any ideas or want to input any ideas or scenarios, I'll be happy to add it into the story.**

**And thank you for all the reviews, follows etc. **

* * *

_Gamora_

Last night I couldn't stop thinking about him and replaying the touchy and close scenes in my head. The feeling of his lips so close to mine and the slow thudding of his chiseled chest. I melted in his arms.

NO! Why would I even think such thoughts? I did not like Peter… I think. Well, I hoped. One of the only things I am afraid of is becoming attached to someone. Once they're gone even for a second, it's as if they become a part of you and emotions of worry and despair are the only things you feel. I don't know how love works, to be utterly honest, since I have never been in love before and do not want to be.

The door slowly creaks open, Peter peeking his head out slightly only to display his eyes.

"Hey" he greets in a deep morning voice, which sounded seemingly attractive.

I push my body up with my elbows and blink a few times before staring at him for a few moments, "Hello Peter" I mumble lousily.

He sighs and reveals himself and closes the door behind him, tucking his hands behind his back and biting down on his lip awkwardly.

He had tousled light brown hair, which was thick and lustrous from his sleep. His eyes were a mesmerizing deep ocean blue, flecks of silvery light performed ballets throughout. His face was strong and defined. His usually playful smile had drawn into a hard line across his face. His perfect lips ripe for the kissing. Kissing?

How can a person make me feel this strange emotion?

"Uh," he fumbles, looking around. "I'm sorry?" he apologizes for last night and raises his shoulders and looks at me.

"Forget it, Quill"

"Forget what, exactly?"

"Your pelvic sorcery" I lower my eyebrows and sit up on the bed, but he still looked utterly confused and slowly starts to laugh at me.

"Pelvic sorcery?" he lowers himself closely beside me, not only making the bed sink but my heart race.

"Okay, fine. No more of my awesome jokes for once," he nods and I roll my eyes. "I really do like you." He states.

I frown.

"Peter, do you really expect me – an assassin _and_ warrior – to believe that you actually like me? Me, of all people. Do you know how many innocent souls I have slaughtered? Or the relics I've stolen? Or maybe even the things I've been through? Because no matter how much you claim to lo-"

The next thing I knew, he had slammed his lips to mine and nearly knocked all wind from my lungs.

I hardly had a moment to react before he pressed his tongue to the seam of my lips and, at my grant of access, delved inside my mouth. His arm tangled around my waist, driving me crazy. In an instant I was pulled forward and arched up into his broad chest, supressing the moaning in the contact of body heat against my own, before he was the one who drew back slowly.

I widened my eyes at him and a slight smirk tugged at his lips, rising from my bed.

"Have a good morning, Gamora" he sing-songs out of my room.

One time when I was younger and climbing up a tree, watching the clouds form shapes, I dozed off and fell ten feet to the ground, landing on my back. It was as if the impact had knocked every wisp of air from my lungs, and I lay there struggling to inhale, to exhale, to do anything.

That's how I feel now, trying to remember how to breathe, unable to speak, totally stunned as the flavour of Peter's lips stained my memory.

* * *

"Okay, listen up!" Rocket gathered everyone together, swinging his gun everywhere.

I couldn't stop thinking about him, so I forced myself to concentrate on what Rocket was saying.

"We have been given a… mission. From that crazy-ass dude we recall as The Collector or if you like more casual terms, The Kidnapper" he continues explaining, standing on top of a mound of crates.

"Who is this, Kidnapper?" Drax frowns, seated in chair.

"The Collector" Peter corrects, and glances towards me. I quickly look away.

"Maybe you would know who that is if you didn't call an entire army to kill us all" Rocket explains slowly, his voice dripping with sarcasm. Drax grunts roughly with a frown.

"Okay, okay… calm down everyone." Peter stands to his feet, gesturing with his hands. "We're over that now. Rocket?" Peter raises his eyebrows.

Rocket mumbles something under his breath before rising to his normal posture, "We are meeting in Xander, so he can pay us or whatever" he explains.

"How are we supposed to trust him, after the Orb?" Peter questions. "And what is this so-called 'mission' about?"

"Why the fuck you askin' me?" Rocket shrugs to his questions. "I'm just in it for the cash"

"I'm Groot"

"He is not nice! He's a creep! I mean he wanted to freakin' frame you!" Rocket throws his arms in the air.

"We need more details, Rocket" I say focusing back on to the mission and ignoring Peter's stare.

"Yeah um, there's a catch. I kind of ended the call when his assistant was giving me the coordinates to the position because I slipped and – BOOM!" he motions with his paws.

"You what?" I ask lowly.

"We can just split up and find him" Rocket flourishes with his hand as if it was nothing.

"Do you know how big Xander is?" Drax says.

"It'll be fine, guys" he reassures. "Me and Groot, Gamora and Quill"

"What about me?" Drax frowns.

"So we're all good? Okay." Rocket says and hops down from the crates.

"No, no! Not okay. So you're plan is to waltz around Xander trying to find a creep and his assistant?" Peter intrudes.

"Not waltz. More like break dance" Rocket smirks flashing his sharp teeth, and reloads his gun.

"We are not to cause any trouble. Remember, we made a deal with Nova" I remind everyone, especially Rocket.

"Still sucking the joy from everything, aren't we?" he mutters and drops his gun.

"To Xander" I ignore Rocket and glance towards Drax who starts to fill in the coordinates.


	4. Thank you, Quill

_Peter_

My heart pounds in my chest. Like a fast forwarded rhythm on a playlist.

There I stood, forcing my eyes into the back of the stone throne and ignoring the beast circling me. I passed out and found myself standing here. A dark and overshadowed part of the galaxy made of stone and regret. I couldn't remember freakin' anything.

A tall man wearing silver armour accented with green velvet. His long black hair was slicked back and he had incredibly pale skin, with bright green eyes. He stood to the side, on the steps towards the throne wearing a freakish smirk.

And the only way to describe the monster nearing me was a bipedal complete absence of light. It wasn't just blackness, it was nothing at all. He cast no shadow, made no noise and gave off no odour. He inherited no face, just glowing red eyes similar to my mask. His voice was rasping although he had no display of a mouth. And long sharp claws of darkness that he dragged across the floor, creating an irritating screech.

As his shadowed claw reaches out for me, I can hear 'his' laugh, a cruel, cold cackle that freezes me in my spot and drained all hope, dreams and feeling from within me, replacing them with a feeling of despair, hopelessness and most of all, _fear_.

Its sharpened claws cut through my body and wrap around my face. It choked the breath from my lungs and left my body dry heaving, desperately trying to rid me of all existence. Black mist swirled at the edges of my mind, drawing me into its open arms and leaving a tight, dry feeling in my chest. The monster's arms wrapped around my body and I screamed. Only I didn't. I strained my vocal chords but not a sound came out. I held on to the last of my breath, only to be dropped against the cold stone floor of this place.

"Your father was a great man, Peter Quill." a different voice echoed from the throne. A voice incredibly deep and eerie.

I clutched my chest and breathed shallowly, gasping for oxygen as the dark beast that had attacked me continued to laugh at my reaction and the man wearing green started to chuckle. I looked up at the turned throne, clumsily rising to my feet. I took some time to slowly comprehend his words, and then it hit me.

He was talking about my father.

Who was this – this 'person'?! How did he know my name? Where is Gamora and everyone else?

"You must be what's left." the voice continued and I practically hear him smirk in his voice, making my blood boil.

"Who-"

"I am Thanos." the voice introduced impatiently, and suddenly his floating throne begun to slowly rotate to reveal himself.

He had rough violet skin, and larger humanoid features; his hands resting calmly upon his throne, a greater chin, and a pair of icy glowing eyes as his body was iron clad with thick golden armour.

"I'll see you soon." he mustered a sinister smirk, his teeth threatening and bright.

And before I could react, the growling beast lunged towards me once more. I tried to dodge a swing from its massive claws, but it struck my side and I fell back into the cold floor. Its flaming red pits for eyes boring into mine as I faded out of consciousness.

I could hear nothing - all was silenced, the cruel laughter, the hisses of the creature, all inaudible. All I could do is feel. Feel the cold ground pressed against my form, the heat from the pain, and the rhythm of the drum that would signal my end.

All was fading and blurring blackness. Am I dead? I blinked and an abrupt image stars and splashes of the galaxy loomed my blurring vision.

"Peter" a woman whispered, seemingly close to my ear. I turned back, but no one was there.

As soon as I felt the gentle grip on my hand, I knew it was my mother.

"Let go, Peter." she whispered yet tightened her grip. "Let go…"

* * *

"LET GO!"

Rocket tugged on to his arm as it was locked under my threatingly tight grip. I quickly released, realizing all my muscles were tensed and somewhat sore.

Then I remembered.

I sat up sharply and looked up, and around at my surroundings for any stone thrones or continuous galaxy images. But all I saw was a filthy and poorly furnished spaceship, otherwise known as the Milano.

It was just a nightmare.

I must have fallen asleep while on break from flying the ship with Drax. Speaking of which, I felt the ship stiffen. We weren't flying anymore.

Rocket rubbed his arm, rotating his paw and narrowing his beady brown eyes at me "What the fuck was that?!" he exclaimed and hoped up on to the table, Groot looming over us both with a concerned expression on his wooden features.

"I'm Groot"

I tilted my head to the side, noticing that Drax and Gamora weren't in sight. I've decided to assume that we landed and they went to buy some supplies or whatever.

My heart rate was still thumping rapidly, yet not as much as before. I felt slight sweat glisten on the back of my hot neck as I managed to control my dense breathing.

Rocket sighed and then looked up at me, "You were yelling and shouting stuff, so me and Groot here came to check out what the problem was. But you freakin' grabbed my arm and wouldn't let go. Guess it was a nightmare or somethin'?" Rocket explained. And I could tell he was trying to maintain his patience and keep cool since he experiences nightmares a lot and understands how it is.

I couldn't shake the feeling of being attacked, or staring into those ice-blue eyes, or holding my mother's hand…

Thanos. Why did that name sound so familiar?

"Thanos?" Rocket questioned, looking slightly confused after I realized I had spoken aloud. "Gamora's father?" Rocket asked, sitting on the edge of the table.

Gamora's adoptive father. That was it. But I still don't understand how I could see him in my dream, even though I do not know what he looks or sounds like. He spoke fondly of my father, which made a bit more sense since I recently learnt that I wasn't fully Terran.

I explained my entire dream to Rocket and Groot, who surprisingly listened well.

"I am Groot" Groot spoke to Rocket with a frown.

"Yeah me either. I'm not too sure what the black monster thing is, or the guy standing aside. Just don't worry about it, Quill." Rocket shook his head and shrugged.

But I couldn't. The dream was too clear to be forgotten.

"Gamora and the other one went to go get supplies before we start our mission. They left ages ago; they'll be back any minute now." Rocket says and hops down from the table to go open up his crates and start to organise his equipment. And bombs, that he STILL hasn't removed from my ship.

Groot turned to me with a small smile before walking over to Rocket. I never can understand those two. They are completely inseparable yet utter opposites. Did Rocket owe Groot some kind of debt? Vice versa? Seriously, how can someone like Groot be protective of someone so dangerous, like Rocket?

Why was I so protective of Gamora? I decide to leave that question unanswered, for now.

At that thought Gamora (looking as stunning as always) and Drax enter the ship holding steel boxes of food, machinery equipment and fresh water.

"Look who's finally up." Gamora says, releasing the stack of boxes on the table and crossing her arms towards Peter. "Good morning, Peter" she sing-songs in a mocking tone. Then I remembered the kiss.

I can't help but take my mind off of everything for a little while and smile at her. She continued to glare, not breaking her gaze.

I wiggled my eyebrows at her, and she simply tilted her head.

"Okay you numbskulls, now that we are all here we can find this guy and get paid. Ah, I mean get happy from helping someone…" Rocket excuses lamely, clearing his throat.

"On our journey I hope we can - ", Drax begins and he raises a finger to his neck and gestures a slicing motion.

I grin and nod, patting him on the back, feeling proud.

Gamora, Rocket and Groot frown in confusion, looking at Drax as if he had just grown another pair of arms.

"Why would you want to put your finger to your throat on our journey?" Gamora wondered, after a moment's silence.

I sigh, "It's an expression. You know, finger to throat? Meaning you're going to slice someone's neck?" I gesture with my own hands and raise my eyebrows when they all still stare.

"Slice their neck? Why not cut their entire head off?" Rocket asks as if it was the most appropriate thing to do.

"I just – why has no one ever heard of this expression?! Groot?"

Groot shrugs and continues to stare as if I was the weird one. "Just forget it, let's go…" I mutter.

* * *

"Star-Lord!" A flock of attractive Xanderian women swooned, making their way over to Gamora and I. Some had their hair pinned up and others had it flowing down. They all wore dresses, bows and grins as they rushed to my side.

"Yes." I hissed under my breath. Finally, after all this time, more people are recognising me as the ex-outlaw: Star-Lord.

Groot, Rocket and Drax split in to one group to search the east side of Xander while we searched the opposite. Even though Rocket had said that Drax is ruining their 'vibes'. So Gamora was left to me, despite her protests, which I ignored. I knew she liked me. Everyone does, especially her.

Gamora grunted at the girls and slowly tried to sneak away. Hah, not this time! I grabbed her by the arm and steered her back towards me as I grinned at the girls who started to squeal and jump with excitement. Tell me again, why didn't I save Xander earlier?

"Star-Lord! Can I feel your biceps?"  
"Can you sign this?"  
"Kiss me!"

One of the girls came forward, one that I instantly recognised as Bereet, also known as my most recent ex-girlfriend. She was a hottie yet she couldn't tell the difference between her left and right. "Peter!" she pushed past mounds of girls who begun to grow, elbowing and stepping on their toes with a frown.

"Bereet." I sighed. This wasn't going to be pretty.

"Peter. I've been trying to call you, but you won't answer?" she frowned with fake confusion, making her way closer and completely ignoring Gamora who stood on the sidelines.

"Maybe because we broke up? Must I recall _you_ were the one who broke up with _me_ because I am uncaring (yes), self-indulged (yes), and stupid (possibly)?" I remind her as she blinks her big pink eyes innocently, and twirls her skirt around.

"Oh Peter," she laughs. "It was only a joke!" she grins seductively and places a hand against my neck gingerly.

The small crowd gasps with even more excitement and starts chanting, "KISS, KISS, KISS!"

I laugh nervously, unsure how to escape this situation. I would have loved this to happen a few months ago, but now, not so much. I glanced towards Gamora who looked blank and maybe even jealous?

"Why not? We wouldn't want to disappoint a crowd, Peter." she smirks and leans forward with pink pouted lips, but I back away as if she were to bite.

"Hey!" I shout over their agitating chants and they gradually begin to slow down into silence.

I take a step away from Bereet, much to her dismay, and stand next to Gamora, "I am currently in a relationship and also currently on a mission." I say and reach down to grab Gamora's hand, intertwining our fingers together. She tugs away from my grasp but I pull tighter, and swing our hands together. I quickly kiss her hand, to add the extra touch. I can hear her stiff groans of disgust and protest but she goes along with it, even placing a fake smile to her lips.

Almost too fake.

"I could not tell you if I loved her the first moment I saw her, or if it was the second or third or fourth." I say and look towards Gamora's eyes. "But I remember the first moment I looked at her standing next to me and realized that somehow the rest of the world seemed to vanish when I was talking to her." I said quietly, and I could feel her heartbeat rise through our hands.

"So, if you don't mind, I would like some peace, perhaps?" I ask and quickly return back to the crowd, although it doesn't exactly sound like a question. More like an order.

The crowd takes one look at Gamora, maybe even smiling with admiration, until some idiot calls out "Thanos's daughter!"

Their faces grow into some of pure horror and shock before they all start to scream and run, including Bereet.

Gamora's fake smile drops but she forgets to remove her hand from mine. She looks at me for a moment, "Thank you, Quill." She says genuinely with a slight smile that didn't exactly reach her eyes, but still meant something.

She actually _thanked_ me.

"What would you do if you were really my girlfriend?" I smirk and she removes her hand, nudging me in the ribs and walking off.

We still had to find The Collector.

* * *

**This chapter is extra long to make up for Chapter 3's laziness. Thank you again for reading, reviewing, following etc. because each and every one of you have been a big motivation and help to me writing this story.**

**What do you guys think of this chapter? What do you think of Peter and Gamora? Should I continue? Voice your opinion below! It'll only take a moment :)**


	5. Crash Landing

_Gamora_

Peter caught up beside me, and I could see him holding on to his ribs slightly from the corner of my eye. The words unintentionally kept replaying over my own thoughts, finally driving me insane.

"…_I remember the first moment I looked at her standing next to me and realized that somehow the rest of the world seemed to vanish when I was talking to her…"_

Peter did seem slightly disturbed when we first spoke to each other though.

When the other girls crowded him, I felt this foreign burning feeling stuck in the pit of my stomach and throbbing in my chest similar to anger. I wanted to believe it was anger, but it wasn't. Was this jealousy? I cannot a recall a time I was jealous before. I had always been my fathe- Thanos's favourite out of all my 'sisters'. And even if I wasn't his favourite, I don't think I would have cared.

Thanos tortured me and slaughtered my family, therefore making me the only survivor of my race, the Zen-Whoberis. I wanted to escape his continuous missions of evil, and I wanted to lose my title of 'the most dangerous woman in the universe' and 'daughter of Thanos'. But I have learnt, sometimes you don't get what you want.

Speaking of which, I wonder what happened to Nebula. She was the nicest out of them all back in Titan, and that just goes to show you how truly insane they all are.

When Peter had chosen _me_ out of all those attractive Xanderian women, I couldn't place how I felt but it was a relieving sort of emotion, even though I did not want to show it.

Focus. We had to look for Taneleer. In Xander. How hard could it be? You could spot that man if he was invisible; wearing extravagant articles of leather, fur and other fabrics.

I wonder what he wanted from us. He didn't exactly do anything wrong for us to lose our (cautious) bond of trust – it was his servant, Carina if I recall, at fault to create the explosion. So, I suppose we were going to be fine. I hope.

"Where is this guy?" Peter sighed after moments and moments of silence.

"Keep looking." I mutter, forcing myself to keep focused.

"I am. I have been for the _last thirty minutes_." Peter groans, weaving his way in and out through the crowds of Xanderians. He complains too much.

"Well you kept a promise to find him, did you not?" I raise a brow while nudging past a group of girls who refused to move out the way.

"Yeah," he sighs in defeat. "I always mean what I say." he mumbles and looks in my direction for a lingering moment, before pushing through more people.

As we reach an opening, he flicks on the communicator connected to his wrist and waits a moment for the mini projector screen to regenerate. A blurring hologram of Rocket's close profile shimmers into view along with the sound of cackling due to technical difficulties. The sounds of cheering, laughter and chatter slowly increases as the image of Rocket clears. Cheering, laughter and chatter?

"Any luck?" Peter asks Rocket lousily, and stops walking. As do I.

"What?" Rocket's voice utters almost accusingly.

"Um, have you seen him yet?" Peter repeats, frowning slightly.

"Seen who?" Rocket asks and the laughter in the back increases.

"The Collector." Peter answers roughly.

"Rocket, what have you been doing for the last thirty minutes?" I ask slowly.

"Uh," Rocket starts and whooping begins in the background. "CHUG, CHUG, CHUG!" crowds of people chant.

Peter and only have to turn to each other to understand what is going on. That idiot, Rocket, hasn't even been looking for The Collector this whole time. I grab Peter's wrist to get a better view of the projector, "Where's Drax? And Groot?" I ask sternly.

Rocket sighs and raises his wrist so we able to get a view of a bar type atmosphere filled with Xanderians, liquor and illegal gambling. Drax stands around the gambling table, cheering along with the rest and chugging down some form of alcohol. It seems as though Groot is standing behind Rocket, due to the evident bark legs in view.

"We'll bring the party to you!" Rocket shouted over a clatter of glasses and chairs.

"You were the one who told us about this mission," I say, managing to keep my anger under control. "Ow!" Peter says, swatting my grip of his wrist. Okay, not quite.

"Sorry, can't hear you!" Rocket yelled as more laughter erupted. The screen returned to Rocket's face. "We seem, BUZZ, to have some technical, BUZZ, difficulties." Rocket lied, and shook the screen rapidly every now and then.

"Rocket!" Peter warned.

"You're, BUZZ, -ing out. What did you say? BUZZ."

"Will you stop with the, BUZZ, crap?!" Peter expressed.

"Wait until I get my hands you. You are –", I begin to threaten, but the projection session closes and it is obvious that Rocket has ended the call.

"Typical." I mutter, pressing my fingertips to the bridge of my nose.

"Now how are we supposed to find The Collector? It's going to take forever."

"It seems," a familiar voice drawls from behind us. "As though I… have already found you."

I quip around, to find – "Taneleer Tivan, The Collector" a new assistant introduces although we already have met on numerous occasions before.

The assistant's eyes, like the rings on Taneleer's fingers, were pools of iridescent gold, sculpted upon her rose coloured face like dazzling jewels. Strands of molten gold tumbled out of her scalp, cascading down her back like a waterfall. Cherry lips, crystal white teeth: she truly was a beautiful sight to behold.

I turned to Peter, who clearly noticed her beauty as well; his mouth hanging agape, and his eyes wide. He quickly shut his mouth and cleared his throat.

I chose to ignore the familiar burning sensation tightening in my chest and didn't once glare at the attractive servant.

"Lady Gamora," Taneleer begun to bow his head and dramatically wither his hands in to some form of 'welcome'? Taneleer inherited the same white hair, tanned skin, tired eyes and lip marking from when we had last seen him. And as to my guess, he was yet again wearing an extravagant get up made of leather and fur.

"An honest pleasure to meet you once more…" he said, his gaze slowly wandering towards Peter.

"And, where are your…slaves?" Taneleer asked, yet continued to watch Peter. Peter raised an eyebrow under his eerie gaze, "Slaves?!"

Taneleer chuckled lowly and I sighed. We've spent at least an hour trying to find The Collector, and I hope he wasn't going to be wasting our time. "They are elsewhere on… urgent matters." I nod to myself.

"How do you, explain that?" Taneleer questioned his gaze settling on me.

"Explain what?" I ask, starting to get impatient.

His gaze flickered behind us, and Peter and I slowly turned to find the Milano landed on top of a crushed waterfall that spat water in various directions. Citizens of Xander curiously crowded the ship, murmuring lowly among themselves. Suddenly the door blasted open with a familiar looking tree figure and followed by a small fluffy creature and a man. Those imbeciles.

"Hey! I said we'd bring the party to you!" Rocket shouted and crawled up to Groot's shoulder, the three of them started to grow closer. "Party?" I frown and stare at the damaged ship.

"You ruined my ship!" Peter yelled, staring at the scene with disbelief.

"Yeah, note to self: never let Groot drive." Rocket said and crawled down Groot's frame.

"I am Groot." Groot shrugged innocently.

"I said turn left but you turned right!" Rocket argued.

"My ship is ruined…" Peter continued.

"I had nothing to do with this." Drax said.

"Yes, you did we saw you!" I told Drax.

"Oh." That's all Drax said. And then everyone grew in to an eruption of arguments, it was madness. Peter started complaining about Groot, but then Rocket decided it was a good idea to defend him and admit that it was his fault. I was yelling at Drax and then told Peter and Rocket to stop being so childish. It was all a blur of nonsense words.

"Enough." Taneleer interrupted and everyone slowly silenced.

"Oh not this goon again…" Rocket mumbled.

"Who is this?" Drax asked, stepping forward.

His assistant spoke up, "Taneleer Tivan, The –",

"We get who he is already!" Rocket said. "Yeah and uh sorry about ending the conversation so soon," Rocket said to the servant, referring to the hologram message they shared. "Groot pressed the wrong button."

"I am Groot." Groot folded his arms defensively.

"I did not slip!" he differed, and then glanced back to the servant with a smile.

"The reason why I had… called you all here is because I need you to, _collect_ something for me." The Collector said.

"And, that is?" Rocket motioned with his paws for him to hurry up.

"The Tesseract." He answered dramatically.

I remember the hologram images he had showed us. The Tesseract is one of the oh-so powerful Infinity Stones. It was the glowing blue cube which controlled the mind. Why would he need that?

"The Tesseract, another Infinity Stone? Why would you need that?" I ask, curiously not meaning to be suspicious at all.

"To add to my collection." The Collector answers lowly.

"And not to blow up anything, I hope?" Peter asks, glancing towards his new servant who looked slightly confused. Peter was still irritated from his crashed ship.

"Of course not." Taneleer smiled lightly, setting an unsettling environment. "Anaconda, restore their ship to its full potential and then return with the coordinates." He orders and the servant, known briefly as Anaconda, nods and mutters a small "Yes, sir."

"I will explain everything later, but for now you are able to stay in residential services nearby." He says and straightens his posture, turning to leave.

"Wait, wait, wait, wait. How much are you paying us exactly?" Rocket interfered and I stepped on his foot, receiving a small groan. Is that all he ever cared about?

Taneleer slowly turned back, "Twice as much as I offered you beforehand." He said dully and continued off.

Twice as much?!

* * *

_Third Person – Hours Earlier_

"Bring them to me." An incredibly deep voice ordered.

"I think you doubt them. They defeated –"

"That's because Ronan was weak! Pathetic! And power-driven." The voice boomed. "Taneleer, you are one of the only living species left of your race. We wouldn't want you to be extinct now, would we?" The voice continued.

After a moments silence, The Collector begun to pace across the familiar gloomy stone plane. "And why me?" he asks and continues to pace, only briefly pausing to glance at the others. Specifically, the Asgardian one.

"Because I am supposed to be dead!" the raven haired man answered. "Must I remind you, that I brang you the Aether?" he continued.

"Loki," the booming voice interrupted. "Must I remind you, you lost the Tesseract?"

Loki mildly smirked and decided to keep his mouth shut.

The Collector came up with an idea to lure them here, but wondered many other things. "And what do you intend to do with them?" he asked.

"Rid of them. I already have a group of these 'protectors' to deal with. Hopefully, that is not a problem to you?" The voice asked cautiously.

After a few moments of silence, "No," The Collector answered. "It is not."

"Very well." The voice said and the stone throne turned to reveal Thanos, the purple titan. "These Guardians of the Galaxy will feel the wrath of our power." He smirked, chuckling lightly.

* * *

**Rushed chapter, but I had to quickly post! Thank you all once again for the reviews, follows etc. they really do help me form this story. **

**What do you think is going to happen next? When do you think Peter's father will appear? So many questions…**

**Yeah, but thanks for reading!**


	6. The Apartment

_Peter_

Man, either our vacancies have been unintentionally switched or The Collector is super rich.

The apartment was new. Very new. It looked like it had been finished last week. It looked almost too new in some strange way. It was as if it had rolled off a production line, but they had forgotten that it was only an apartment and not some millionaire's bedchambers.

There were five extremely furnished bedrooms, one for each of us. Rocket and Groot had to share a room back in the Milano. There were also three bathrooms. In the Milano there was one. And you could also sit down anywhere you liked without putting a seat belt on all the time.

One wall was made of a holographic glass to expose a glamorous garden outside. Tangled thickets of thorn, flower beds and bushes, knotted boughs, and branches were drooped dankly from the view inside. The sky was painted with a vibrant violent colour, showing a faint display of the impressions of different planets, indicating that it was already evening.

There was everything here.

"You know Rocket, I don't think I mind that you crashed my ship." I say, studying the high rise ceiling with disbelief.

"I don't either." Rocket replied, and set his crate of belongings (which mainly consisted of mechanics and bombs,) down at a vacant table. I have decided that, that table is officially Rocket's mechanics table and if anyone but himself, with the exceptions of Groot, touched his table I don't think it would go down well.

Groot studied the flora and vegetation outside, regenerating flowers that have drooped or were drained in colour.

Drax watched Rocket viciously slam metallic parts against the iron table, muttering words to himself and then screw other parts together. Drax raised a brow and backed away slowly.

Gamora was out of sight, and possibly retiring in her own room. I couldn't blame her. What a day. First I had that strange nightmare, and it took almost hours to look for The Collector, and then Rocket goes ahead and decides to crash my ship.

We are to stay at Xander as temporary residents while my ship is being repaired, which will take approximately two days before we carry out The Collector's mission.

A timid knock could be heard from the door.

"We have guests." Drax said, noticing the faint knock as well. While Rocket on the other hand, continued to flick switches and connect metal objects together.

I groaned slightly, defiantly not in the mood for any guests at the moment. Pressing the button for the door to open, I was kind of surprised to see Anaconda; the new and stunning servant girl of The Collector. She wore a different dress to the first time I had seen her. Its creamy fabrics wove around her lithe figure and tightened across her waist, cut short above her knee. She was almost alluring.

"Hello Peter." She greets quietly, her hands tucked behind her back. She peered over my shoulder, and I stepped out of the way to allow her inside.

"I have been ordered to visit and to make sure everything is well. I bought a gift." Anaconda explains, as we walk through the hallway. She removes a tall crimson bottle of alcohol from behind her back and offers it to me.

Before I could even grab it, Rocket halts his mechanic works and jumps up to grab the bottle. "Thanks." He mumbles, attempting to tear the cork off with his incredibly sharp teeth, walking over to the kitchen. I sigh down at him and look back to Anaconda.

"Yeah, we're doing fine." I shrug, and grin lightly. "Drax?"

"I am well, thank you." He answers mindlessly and snatches the bottle off Rocket from the kitchen, who has failed to remove the cork. Rocket's saliva soaked the top half of the bottle, and Drax looked down at him "Gross."

Anaconda looked around the room with curiosity, and studied the wall to her right. "Nice wallpaper." She comments patting the wall. "Yeah." I nod, bunching my eyebrows up at her. If anyone stayed around Taneleer too long, I think they would become a weirdo too.

A bracelet drops off from her hand and she bends over to pick it up.

_Thump! Splooosh!_

I turn to Drax and Rocket, who previously where fighting over the bottle of wine. The red liquid is spilled over the marble tiles, walls and benches. Drax stands awkwardly with an empty bottle in one hand and the cork in his other. Rocket is soaked in the wine, looking hilarious with matted fur, and staggering to his feet at the end of the puddle.

Drax looks to me, and opens his mouth to speak but then decides to say nothing.

"You know what? I'm not even going to ask." I shake my head, examining the scene once more, slightly chuckling at Rocket who glares at Drax.

I turn towards Anaconda who smiles at me and there is a moment of strange silence. I clear my throat, "Well thank you for visiting." I say, trying to be polite.

"You are welcome, Peter Quill. I shall be on my way since I have duties to attend to." She bows her head respectably, allowing me to escort her towards the door. Before she leaves she turns back and says, "Sincere apologies… for interrupting." She apologizes and heads out of the door in silence.

"What was all that about?" Rocket calls out from the kitchen once she leaves.

"I don't know. I guess The Collector wanted to make sure we were in good hands." I reply and return to the kitchen areas.

"Good hands?" Drax frowns with confusion.

I don't bother to explain this time.

"What is going on?" a stern voice asks from the hallway of rooms.

I watch Gamora walk down the hallway, her body wound up in a cream coloured towel with dark damp hair lazily wound up and glistening green skin.

I can't help but stare. I can't help but imagine…

Ugh, I am so dirty minded. Whatever I am guy, and that's a pretty good excuse for almost anything. The only other time I've seen her close to being nude was the time in the prison cell, so it could probably be easy to understand how much of a shock it is to see her like this.

"Peter?" Gamora's voice snapped me out of my thoughts and I blinked a few times.

"Uh…" I stutter. What was she saying again?

Rocket begins to laugh and I shoot him a glare. His laughing always sounds unreal. "That is a fake laugh." I mutter, but this time he just continues to laugh.

"The cork came off and hit Rocket, and so did the wine." Drax explains to Gamora and looks back over the scene himself, almost with pride.

Gamora takes one look at Drax, Rocket and the wine. "Clean it up." She says quietly to them. Then she turns to me, her gaze lingering longer than it should before she saunters back in to her room.

After Rocket finally stops 'laughing', he and Drax search through the apartment for some cleaning supplies or closets that would contain anything to help.

I sigh and turn around to walk to my room.

"What the heck?!" I jump backwards staring up at the eight foot tall Groot who was standing behind me. How did he get in here? I thought he was outside this whole time.

Instead of saying anything, like something along the lines of 'I', 'am' and 'Groot', he just stands there staring down at me with a smug look set on his face.

"What?" I ask and look behind me, only to find nothing interesting.

"I am Groot." He says, but of course I do not understand what he's trying to say. All I hear is 'I am Groot.' And that exact meaning.

"I am Groot…" he repeats with a sigh and points towards Gamora's door.

I look towards Gamora's door but still don't understand.

"What he's trying to say is, is that you should make a move, gargoyle." Rocket interprets, carrying a steel bucket filled with scrubbing brushes and paper towels.

How did _they_ know that I liked her? I mean they watched us almost kiss, but that's about it.

"It's pretty obvious. The way you look at her with googly eyes." Rocket explained noticing my look of confusion and set the bucket down on the floor, arching his back and moaning.

"Really?" I wince.

"I am Groot."

"Hey, that ain't a bad idea." Rocket nods at Groot.

"What? What did he say?" I ask Rocket eagerly.

"He said you should take her out. Specifically speaking out in the garden, with his help of course." Rocket replies.

"I'm Groot?"

"No, of course I ain't helpin'. I don't do the sappy stuff, plus I am busy." Rocket excused. A loud metallic clatter erupted from somewhere in the apartment. Rocket groaned and covered his face with his paws.

"What are ya doin', Drax?!" Rocket shouted and dragged the bucket along with him.

I looked up to Groot. And he looked back down at me.

I just hope this was going to turn out well.

* * *

I stood outside Gamora's room, taking a deep breath. I'll be lucky if she doesn't eat me alive or something. Wait, can she do that?

I ignore the irrelevant thoughts and cautiously open her door. Gamora is looking at some holographic map of the entire universe, which took up most of her room space.

"Were you ever taught to knock, Peter?" she asks not once looking up at me, zooming in on different plants and examining its properties.

"Yeah, but I choose not to." I say and let myself inside her room. It looked similar to everyone else room but was more narrow and long rather than wider. There were electrical appliances that generated different holograms and triggered various parts of her room. It smelt faintly of cinnamon for some reason.

"Will you just forget how annoying I am for a few minutes, and let me show you something?" I ask quickly with a hopeful grin.

"What?" she asks but I place my hands over her eyes, and begin to lead her out of the room. "Peter, unhand me at once!" she shouts, but I walk faster down the long hallway.

"What is this nonsense? I demand an explanation!" she shouts, but allows me to continue to lead her.

"Just close your eyes. You trust me?" I say. It wasn't supposed to sound like question, but it did.

Gamora goes quiet and I feel her eyelashes flutter against my hands. I use one hand to cover both her eyes as I use the other to press the button, activating the door.

I hear Gamora sigh as I lead her outside in the gardens, and slowly remove my hand. I turn to look at her, but she still has her eyes squeezed shut. "Open." I whisper, with a smile. She slowly flutters her eyes open and they widen at the sight in front of her.

Newly grown flowers erupt on the grass like frozen flames, bringing their cool blaze in to the late of the night. The sweet, almost sickly, smell of them cut through the soft scent of the night's fresh atmosphere. The flowers stood six feet tall, and were glittered in shades of gold and then other colours of pinks, purples, blues and yellows that complimented the glittering sky.

The air beneath our knees could be seen to swirl and eddy like water, it flowed around us and we had no choice but to breathe it in. Sequin-silver stars like the scattered embers of a dying fire winked down at us, illuminating the atramentous yet vibrantly coloured curtain of sky.

Glowing embers of Groot's creations lingered and swirled in the air slowly and silently, enlightening a soft orange glow throughout the gardens paths among the deep darkness.

"Peter…" Gamora whispers in shock. "How did you…"

"Groot." I answer and take a few steps forward. I look back towards her and hold out my hand, "Take my hand." I say.

She looks down at my hand with caution before slowing slipping hers in to mine.

"This is amazing." Gamora says quietly, brushing her fingertips across a gigantic yellow flower petal.

"It is." I murmur, staring closely at her. The embers create an orange glow at her face, highlighting her cheekbones and sending dappled shadows across her contours. For once she didn't look scary, she looked really… beautiful.

I lead her through a path and a large mutant butterfly with iridescent blue wings swoop over our heads. She leans against a tree trunk, releasing our grip, and stares over the gardens once more with amazement.

"Are you afraid? About the mission?" I ask, staring above at the sky.

"Whatever nightmares the future holds are but dreams compared to what's behind me." She answers her jaw tightening slightly.

I decide to change the topic, "You know, I still like you."

"That's a little obvious, Quill." She mutters, with a small grin on lips.

"Why does everyone say that? It's not _that_ bad…" I argue.

"Actually, you stand corrected." She says and gestures towards the extraordinary garden.

"Whatever." I sigh and lean against the tree trunk beside hers. After a moment's long silence, "Do you like me back?" I ask. This felt like primary school all over again. It was so awkward.

She turns to look at me, but doesn't answer. I lean forward and so does she.

Unexpectedly, my hand drifts down to her hip. It settled there and pulled her closer. She inhaled sharply. She was against my chest, looking up with big dark eyes. She splayed her hand against my chest, intending to push me away, but instead she left it there. Her breathing quickened slightly. I began nuzzling her neck with delicate kisses. Warmth radiates from the spot where my lips just touch her neck, and I could feel her shiver.

She urged herself to push away, but couldn't. My head was angled slightly to the side as my lips came closer and closer to hers. She was surprised to find her own lips parted. It wasn't like the abrupt kiss we shared back in the Milano. At first, it was a delicate butterfly of a kiss. Then my arms encircled her, as we both leaned deeper.

* * *

_Rocket_

"It's about freakin' time, Quill!" I say, adjusting my identificator screen and zooming in on them both.

"I'm Groot." Groot frowns at me, nudging me sideways slightly. So what if it's wrong?! We were ex-criminals, and he is complaining about this?!

"And so is drinking from the water fountain, Groot, but I don't see you stopping that." I snap, and place the screen down.

"Rocket, we haven't cleaned it up yet," Drax interrupts from behind us, referring to the puddle of red that remained.

"Oh whoa, don't go blaming it on me. You're the one who did it!" I shout and kick my bucket away.

"Gamora will most likely harm us if she sees the mess still here." Drax frowns.

I spring up slightly, "You know what? I think cleaning it up is a good idea after all! Groot, grab a bucket."

* * *

**This chapter is ultra long, I didn't mean for it to get this long but it did. I hope you all don't mind! I decided that I need a real chapter for Starmora, and then we'll get back on track with the story line (The mission, Peter's father, etc.)**

**Thank you for all the reviews and follows! They mean a lot. I will be posting the next chapter, when I get around 60 reviews. It doesn't have to be exact, it's a just a petty goal.**

**But what do you think of their relationship? Favorite moments? What are you wondering about? **

**I know I've said it before, but a review will take less than 30 seconds and a follow will take less than 10 - if you enjoyed the story that is. And once, again thank you for reading!**


	7. Under Attack

**Next few chapters will be in Peter's POV due to the sake of the storyline. I hope no one is disappointed, but we will have Gamora's POV back soon.**

* * *

_Peter _

We had spent approximately two days in the apartment and it had been exactly two days after The Kiss. I couldn't believe how Groot managed to make the garden look like that, in a small amount of time. After The Kiss, I think I finally knew how I felt about Gamora. But did she feel the same way? We talked and talked about different things that I have never spoken about before to anyone; my mother, my music and Earth. She seemed fascinated and confused with the concepts of television.

"_Why do you humans find entertainment in watching others do things?" _

"_Sometimes television helps us realize things. Life lessons and stuff…It's interesting, actually."_

I pointed out complicated star constellations in the sky and she showed me the proper way to throw knives in to trees, much to Groot's dismay.

I've liked so many girls before, but Gamora was different. That sounds so clique, but she just is. Maybe it was because she was strange – not The Collector strange – but beautifully strange. And dangerous, in a way that I loved.

* * *

"It's so dark here…" I mutter quietly, getting goose-bumps along my arms. I slowly exited the fully restored Milano, holding on to a seemingly impressive gun that Rocket had made for me.

Taneleer had offered us the coordinates to the destination of the Tesseract and after a few hours, complaints and mistakes we finally reached our destination. I expected the location of an Infinity Stone to be in a brighter atmosphere, locked under maximum security. Though everything on this planet seemed dark and luminous with no signs of life. Then again, when I had found the Orb the area wasn't exactly pleasant so I guess I am over reacting.

Yet this place was different. It seemed… familiar.

It was a land of deepest shade, cloaked in the darkness of the universe and the only form of light is the stars. The ground is cold, hard stone. And the stone forms caves, mountains and strange structures. It seemed incredibly similar to somewhere I have seen before.

"Well, this ain't creepy at all." Rocket says walking out of the ship, stocked with his own over-sized gun.

The stillness of the air seemed to suck even the sound of my footsteps into the nothingness. Even the caves did not howl as if they were tense with nerves for what was to come. I could describe it as creepy like Rocket had said, but eerie was closer to it.

"I'm Groot." Groot nods in agreement, following his best friend out. As did Drax, tightly grasping on to his dagger and inspecting the planet with curiosity and caution.

"I know this place." Gamora says with a firm expression, and closes the ship's door. "Titan, land of Thanos. I lived here" she mumbled quietly.

Well. Land of Thanos. That might just explain everything having a sense of power here. I took another look at my surroundings, and then it hit me. This was the place of my nightmare. The purple titan in his deep voice had promised he would see me soon.

I looked over to Groot and Rocket, but they didn't look back. They must have forgotten about my dream or it hasn't clicked to them.

This was strange. Nightmares don't come true. Do they?

"We split up." Gamora interrupts my thoughts. I didn't tell her about my dream, since I thought it was nothing and had gotten over it. But I guess it wasn't just anything.

"I think it is unwise to divide at such a place." Drax disagrees.

"If we do split up, we will find the Tesseract at a faster pace." Gamora argues.

"What if we are in danger?" Drax questions and takes a step forward, staring down at Gamora.

"We have supplies to use."

"What if those supplies are damaged?"

They both turn to me and the same time they say, "Quill?"

"I'm agreeing with Drax." I shrug and Drax smiles slightly. "The guys always stick together." I say and wrap an arm around Drax's shoulder. "And what if we do get in some sort of trouble?" I add.

Gamora shoots me the deadliest glare and I instantly remove my arm. "Actually in second thought we could split up." I nod quickly and move over to Gamora, wrapping my arm around her waist. She simply gives me a menacing look, swats my arm and walks away.

"Whoever finds the Tesseract first, returns to the Milano. If we are in danger, we can use our communicators. And _if_ those communicators are damaged we return to the ship at once." She says, continuing to walk. Her eyes flicker back at me, waiting for me to follow her.

I look back at the others. Groot and Drax smile but Rocket decides to play puppet with his paws and make them 'kiss' while making sloppy noises. I glare him before turning back and following Gamora.

"Were you seriously considering on agreeing with Drax?" she raises a brow after a few moments as we walk through tall stone curves and arches.

Just lie, just lie, just lie.

I scoff, "No…"

She smirks at me. That's so sexy.

"You are very strange, Peter Quill." She says and looks back to where she is walking.

"I'm strange?" I ask quizzically, and look at her up and down dramatically.

She stifles a laugh at my behavior, and shakes her head. We reach an opening, clear of stone arches. There are a few paths dappled here and there, and we choose the middle path, the one that includes the most light.

"I don't understand why an Infinity Stone would be doing here." She says as we begin to walk through the path, an incredible silence staining the bitter air.

"Well, it could be anywhere." I shrug.

"No. I meant on this planet." She says and blinks a few times, examining the path we tread on.

"Yeah." I mutter and frown slightly. That is a good question: Why would it be here?

"If it _was_ here surely Thanos would have it." Gamora continues.

"Why does he want all the Infinity Stones?"

Gamora sighs, "Apart from the fact that they possess incredible strength and they bring you new found power," she begins, looking at me. "They create an object called the Infinity Gauntlet. I'm not exactly sure what it actually does, I wasn't around to witness its power and wouldn't want to be anyway."

"The Infinity Gauntlet can conquer the entire universe." She slowly finishes with realization and we walk numbly in a bit of silence. I can't imagine what would happen if that thing lands in the wrong hands…

"Oh." I sigh. "What did Thanos… do to you?" I ask, hoping she won't stab me or anything.

"Ruin my life." She answers quietly and doesn't explain any further, so I don't ask any more questions.

Hesitantly, I reach down and grab her hand, giving it a reassuring squeeze. She looks down at our hands and back up at me with a frown, but doesn't flinch and bother to remove her hand surprisingly.

The communicator on my wrist buzzes vibrantly. Gamora and I share a concerned look and remove our grasp suddenly. The others surely can't be in danger, right? I slowly press down on the button and the projection of Rocket's face appears.

"Oh yeah hey, Quill. Ha-ha… Nothing much going on, just casually GETTING ATTACKED!" Rocket shouted and then raised his gun with his other hand, shooting somebody. Drax appeared in the background taking on several alien type creatures.

"Where are you?" I ask him.

He trips over after running across the stone floor, shouting a string of curses to his attacker in front of him.

"We're at – ",

And this time, the communicator actually does begin to 'BUZZ' and fade out. "Rocket?!" I frown and try tapping the button down a few times.

"I AM GROOT!" I can hear a familiar muffled voice in the background and then the screen closes. I punch down on the button some more. It doesn't work. The communicator is broken. We should not have split up.

"Great. We got Thanos sending his losers on to our ass." I sigh and reload my gun.

"Just _focus_ Peter"

"Whatever you say, captain." I shrug, and she sends me a pointed look.

As we turn around to walk back to the direction of the Milano, similar looking aliens that had attacked Drax, Rocket and Groot appeared in front of us. Five extra-terrestrial beings with four black limbs, disfigured mouths and piercing eyes were armed with large guns and wicked smirks.

"You are to return with us, scum." One of them ordered, inheriting a scratchy and deep voice reminding me of the nightmare once more.

"On whose order?" Gamora asked slowly.

"The great and almighty Thanos." A different one replied. "You are to come with us; the easy way, or the hard way."

No, way. They can't just take us that easily. And on Thanos's order?!

"And what if we say neither?" I raise a brow, and slowly reach for the trigger of my gun.

They all chuckled lowly, "You are foolish, young one, to think that we shall accept your answer." The closet one tells us, in a deeper voice.

Before I could think, Gamora advanced viciously towards the first solider, armed with her two knives and slicing viciously and skilfully.

I sigh and know that in this moment, things are not going to end well. I activate my mask and join Gamora, using my gun to shoot the first one I saw. The alien falls to his feet, clutching his punctured chest covered in obsidian coloured blood. I flinch slightly and move on to my next opponent without difficulty.

Gamora had knocked her first opponent out, using her two knives and pride. Maybe this wasn't going to be so bad after all? What is there to worry about? We can just kill these three soldiers and move on to figuring out what happened to the others.

That is until a dozen more aliens appear from behind us, all equipped with guns and snarling smirks. I spoke too soon.

"You choose the hard way? So be it!" another alien laughs cruelly and launches a round sphere ball at our feet.

"What the…" I mutter, staring down at the sphere and look back up at the aliens. Were we supposed to be frightened of it? Or…

"I think I like the hard way." I nod and look back down at the sphere.

"Fool!" the alien continues to laugh, and that is when the round ball releases a sickening white smoke from two holes on either side.

The smoke intoxicates my lungs and fills my throat with a heavy and dreaded feeling. I manage to squint through the thick smoke forming around us to watch Gamora who begins to cough and slowly sink to her knees. I also begin to feel drowsy, my brain blocking off all thoughts. I'm so tired. Maybe I should just…go to…sleep…

* * *

**Lousy chapter, I'm sorry! But this chapter was kind of needed and I couldn't change it, but I'm promising a MAJOR chapter filled with a heap of stuff; Thanos, explanations, more fighting, family surprises.**

**What do you think will happen to Peter and Gamora? Where the heck are Rocket, Groot and Drax? And what are you expecting?**

**(This was a little rushed, I apologize once more! But school homework is the devil)**


	8. Unconscious

_Peter_

Slowly returning back to consciousness I attempt to force my eyelids up, heavy with the weight of the smoke bomb the soldiers infected my lungs with. It feels as though I have been sleeping, but I haven't exactly. The feeling is heavy and sickening in the chest. The dark scenery and unrecognisable blurred voices gradually cleared only so I could make out a few sentences of what they are saying.

"_This is all your freakin' fault!"_

"_Me? You're the one who should have kept quiet!"_

My eyelids slowly sunk down in to the darkness and so did the voices. Where am I? Who are these people? It was an effort to open my eyes again, but this time as I looked around everything is a lot clearer and so were the voices.

"_Shut up Groot, you're not helping."_

"_Stop bickering and help me find a way out of here!"_

"_I am Groot."_

Everything returned to darkness once again, and I could actually recognise the irritated voices this time as Rocket, Drax and Groot. It seemed as though we were still in Titan, surrounded by the same cold stone and the blackened blanket of galaxy. Pushing my eyelids open for the last time, everything cleared and the dark silence vanished in one big swing.

"Shh, he's waking up!" Rocket's voice hissed, followed by some obnoxious metal clanking.

I turn my head to where the voices are coming from and instantly recognise the familiar faces, yet I realise something isn't right. Looking down at my wrists, the same vibrant blue circles are cuffed around my arms and restraining me from moving anywhere, just like the one's around their wrists. The glowing handcuffs are connected to metallic poles that are stuck in the ground that are connected to some power source, but I try giving it a hard tug anyway with no luck.

"That's not going to work, buddy. We've been trying for the last four hours." Rocket sighs and jiggles his own cuffs; the same obnoxious metal clanking erupts as the chains hit the pole.

Four hours?

"How long have I been out?" I frown and squeeze my eyes shut as I try to remember, but the memories and thoughts in my brain fuzz dramatically.

"What's going on?" I ask frantically, before they could answer the first question. I look across to Rocket at the far end, then to Drax and then Groot who stood beside me. My eyes flit around scenery, and at this point I realised I wasn't going to get a positive answer. Darkness washed over me sending another chill down my spine. But it wasn't a chill of passion. It was a chill of fear. The same fear I had before I lost my mom.

The stone throne. The steps. The eerie atmosphere. This is definitely the place of the nightmare. What happened?

"You've been out for ages, so we just gave up on you. And isn't it obvious? The smoke bomb, right? We've been kidnapped, but we have no idea what they want with us." Rocket explains from the far end.

"They don't want something. They need something." Drax speaks up, looking towards Rocket.

"Great." I mutter sarcastically. I remembered Thanos's soldiers failing to knock us out themselves so they used that silver sphere, releasing white fumes. They must off brang us back here and locked us up for something. Things are not going to end well, not that it started off well anyway.

"After I was speaking to you and Gamora on the communicator those alien losers got restless and decided to use a third degree sensory unconscious smoke bomb and-"

"Gamora." The name instantly triggers something off in my brain and I watch their reactions carefully. Rocket groans, Drax shakes his head and Groot sighs. "Where is Gamora?" I ask quietly.

"We – we don't know." Drax answers.

"The lot of us were captured together, but Gamora… was taken away." Rocket explains cautiously.

The dread creeps over me like an icy chill, numbing my brain. In this frozen state my mind offers me only one thought. Gamora could be dead, and we don't even know it. Or worse, in the hands of Thanos. Maybe I'm just being paranoid. Maybe I'm not.

Groot laid his wooden cuffed hand lightly on my shoulder, and instead of flinching like I usually did, I was kind of soothed by it. He left his hand there and spoke with such a low and caring voice I felt his words calming me although I don't know what they mean, "I am Groot."

"Thanks, Groot." I try to smile but it doesn't work, feeling too forced. Groot nods and slowly removes his arm.

"What? What do you mean, 'wait'?!" Rocket frowns and peers across Drax to Groot.

Groot doesn't answer and just smiles slightly. I didn't bother to dwell on what he really meant, but it actually kind of calmed me.

I try pushing the worries and concerns of Gamora away but they just won't. All the memories we shared are filling my brain; saving Xander, teaching her to dance, the kiss. I couldn't give up yet.

"We still have a chance." I say, more so to myself than to the others.

"I'm Groot!"

"Whatever the tree said, he's right," Drax says. "We fight to the end."

After a few moments of silence, Rocket says "How the fuck are we supposed to fight 'til the end when we can't even move?"

"Exactly." a low voice bellows and echoes across the sickening silence. "Your attempts are amusing, but I suggest you stay where you are." The stone throne rotates and there sits Thanos with a spine chilling smirk. He wore the same tarnished gold armour, helmet and iron cuffs as he sat firmly on the floating stone chair listening to every word we speak. The image in my nightmare was so correct and clear that it was actually scary.

"Thanos." We say together at the same time, minus Groot for obvious reasons.

"You killed my wife and daughter in cold blood!" Drax yells instantly, tugging furiously on his chains.

"Getting ahead of ourselves are we?" Thanos chuckles lowly, "I wasn't the one who slaughtered your idiotic excuse for a family." He says. "At the end of the day it was the fool Ronan, and you all took care of him for me. Correct?"

Drax clenches his jaw and chooses not to say anything that would throw us in to danger, learning from past experience so instead he musters a furious glare and manages his anger well for a previous psychopath.

"I'm Groot." Groot turns to Rocket.

"Why?" Rocket screws up his face in confusion.

"I'm Groot!"

"Okay, okay…" Rocket mumbles.

I have no idea what they're arguing about this time but I choose not to interfere at this moment, there were other important matters to control.

"And Peter Quill," Thanos watches me carefully, driving his eyes through my skull. "I promised to see you soon." His lips tug in to a sly smirk.

"How did you get in to my head?" I ask slowly. This question left me puzzled after the nightmare.

"With the help of a good friend from the realm Asgard, but that does not matter right now." He answers. Asgard? They don't know sorcery, do they? I thought they strived in combat.

The Collector, dressed in thick furs and exotic leathers, emerges from behind a stone wall with rows and rows of dark alien soldiers following behind him.

Has he come to rescue us? Well, he got us a freaking expensive apartment so I'm only hoping.

"Okay, _now_ what's going on?" Rocket asked and tilts his head.

The Collector simply ignores Rocket and turns to Thanos, "Your greatness," he begins and withers his hands in some of weird and foreign greeting. "I have brought you…the Guardians of the Galaxy after some, difficulty." He says and finally turns to look at each of us with that same boring expression he wears.

Alright, defiantly not here to rescue us.

"You promised the Flora Colossus. The Groot?" he asks and turns back to Thanos, glancing towards Groot for a brief moment.

"Soon enough." Thanos replies solidly.

"I am Groot?"

"You'll have to get past me bastard, if you want him!" Rocket shouts, and attempts against his restraints but ends up falling on to his face, with his paws roughly connected to the chains

The Collector and Thanos chuckle lowly.

"Adorable." Taneleer comments.

"Traitor!" Drax growls and The Collector simply stares at him for a lingering moment.

"I mean, you gotta admit, we had it coming." I say shrug. There was always something fishy with The Collector. And what do you expect someone to do with an Infinity Stone? Polish it? Frame it?

"So does that mean we are not getting any units?" Rocket asks suddenly.

"Are you serious?" I ask.

"Yeah, I mean it's a fairly good question."

"We are in the middle of a crisis." Drax says and stares down at Rocket with disbelief.

"Don't tell me you guys weren't thinking that." Rocket raises a brow.

"We were not thinking about that." Drax declines with a tough frown.

"Oh." Is all Rocket can say.

"Enough!" Thanos excuses loudly, sending ripples of his interruption through the atmosphere. "You must all be wondering what has happened to your beloved friend," he pauses for a short moment and looks at me. "Gamora. My favorite daughter. It was my original plan to slaughter her under her treason but I've come up with something more… creative after this newly found information thanks to Taneleer." He smirks mercilessly.

They are probably torturing her. And that's when everything dropped cold and I couldn't stand it anymore. First my mother, and now Gamora. No, I was not going to let that happen.

"Leave her alone!" I shout and viciously tug on the handcuffs even though I already know it's not going to do any good, panting at the loss of energy.

Ignoring me he goes on, "Do you remember when The Collector's slave, Anaconda, paid you a visit?" he asks and I wonder what that has to do with anything right now, but continue to listen with a glare.

"She hid a form of surveillance in your apartment." He states.

And then everything made sense.

"_Nice wallpaper."_

"_Sincere apologies…for interrupting."_

I remember her dropping a bracelet to the ground, and that's when I turned my attentions to Drax and Rocket. When I had turned back she was standing up again and looked slightly anxious but I thought nothing of it at the time.

But why would they need to watch us?!

"I knew that wine tasted off…" Rocket mumbled to himself.

"Apparently you enjoy my daughter's company, Peter Quill." Thanos chuckled deeply and leaned forward.

I tensed my jaw and forced myself to remain calm. "Where is she?" I ask through clenched teeth.

"Gamora!" Thanos calls, yet continues to eye us carefully, especially me.

The familiar figure stands in between a pair of guards as they appear from the stone wall. I'm starting to think that's there's some sort of teleportation portal behind there because they're coming from nowhere and it's freaking me out.

Looking back towards Gamora, I notice she has no cuts, bruises, slices or any sign of pain or torture – her skin is almost glowing and she looks surprisingly healthier when I had last seen her. But something doesn't seem right. She seems distant yet focused, and as she turned to look at us she seemed blank as if she doesn't recognize us.

"Gamora!" I shout, hoping and wake she'll realize it's us.

She slowly turns towards me with a slight glare in her eye. "What do you want?" she asks furiously and I take a step back (a very small step back due to the handcuffs). This can't be Gamora. I take another look at her; her green skin shone with a slight grey undertone under the moonlight, she was wearing her same red leather skin suit, and the deep brown eyes remained.

She turned her head to look back up to Thanos and that's when I noticed. Her eyes seemed to have a blinding blue glint to them, and I wasn't sure if it was just the light playing tricks or it was something else.

Did they wipe her memory or something? I refused those thoughts from my brain and focused. "_Remain focused, Peter"_ I remember how she continued to tell me those words.

"What do you want me to do?" I hear Drax ask quietly and look up to Groot, breaking my levels of concentration.

Groot looks back towards Thanos and turns back, and I see Drax nod as if they were signalling something.

Groot has his legs grown in to the stone, and they seem to continue to be growing in to the ground. What the fuck are those three planning without me this time?

"Why aren't these fools killed yet?" Gamora questionably asks Thanos, stepping around Taneleer and the army of dark soldiers.

WHAT?! Something is definitely wrong.

"I was going to leave that part for you." He answered her menacingly.

"Good." She muttered and unsheathed her two knives from her boot holders as she begun to walk, about to go down the stairs.

Gamora is going to kill us. I expected to die in a cool way, like running from an explosion but never making it. Or sacrificing myself for billions of people. But getting killed by your current…girlfriend…isn't the best way to end your life.

I looked around frantically for a way of escape, but there was absolutely nothing I could do. We're officially and utterly doomed.

"WAIT!" Rocket shouted, and everyone paused to look at him. "I have a confession to make," he began slowly and dramatically cleared his throat.

Thanos frowned at him.

"I actually really do, like fountain water." He gradually finishes his sentence.

After a long and awkward moment of silence, Gamora turns back to Thanos. "Thank you for your…confession." Thanos says quietly.

"You're welcome." Rocket nods.

"Kill him first." Thanos waves a hand away and sighs with irritation.

"What? Rude." Rocket mumbles, but he doesn't seem fazed by the fact that he's going to die first. In fact I don't know if he actually cares that he is going to die anyway.

"WAIT!" Drax shouts as well and glances towards Groot's growing limbs that Thanos doesn't seem to notice. I barely did myself.

"I don't have a confession to make." Drax shrugs after some time.

"No more confessions or last words! I want them dead. Gamora!" Thanos yells with anger and slams his purple fists against his stone throne.

Gamora quickly sharpens her knives, and took her first step down the stone stairs.

"Groot now!" Rocket shouts at Groot then all at once, the stone beneath our feet crumbles and the stone poles come loose and break, the blinding blue light emitted from the handcuffs slowly drain to nothingness and they slump off of our wrists with no power.

The roots of Groot's legs withdrawal back to their normal form and he steps over the crumble of stone threatingly. I must admit, that was a pretty good plan yet I don't understand why they never tell me about these things.

"I AM GROOT!" Groot yells and stands tall.

"I also have another confession. I like watching people suffer." Rocket smirks, reaching for his gun connected to his back and reloading it.

"Time to kick some ass." Drax nods, and then shoots a look at me. "Metaphor?" he raises a brow with hope.

"Uh," I tilt my head to the left and right, deciding if it was good enough. "Close enough." I nod and he grins lightly, pulling his dagger out.

I activate my mask and step through the rubble.

"After them!" Thanos orders and the army rushes forward in a shadowed blur, all yelling angry threats and carrying large guns.

"I have a plan!" Rocket shouts over their threats as they near closer, and he climbs up on Groot's shoulder to get a better look of the crowd.

"Listen, because I'm not repeating myself." He says and turns to look at us all from such a tall height. "Peter and Drax you take the right side. Groot and I take the left. We all take on Gamora, but don't kill her. If anyone shoots you, they're bad. Attack them. Are we all good? Okay, let's go!" he explains quickly and raises his over-sized gun with glee.

I activate my mask and sigh, "Here we go." I mutter under the mask and prepare my two Element guns, beginning to zap every alien that has come forward so far.

There weren't much of them anymore, or so it seemed. From a distance there seemed to be hundreds, but no not so much. Yet it still felt as though I was drowning in a sea of black armed cephoids growling words in a foreign language.

Drax seemed to be okay. Actually he seemed to as though he was having fun as he threw the bodies into a pile behind him. Rocket laughed as he rapidly shot from above, using his machine gun carelessly. Groot whacked the aliens out the way, and kicked the ones who were hacking at his feet, but other than that he seemed to be fine walking through the crowds as if it was nothing.

I managed to throw a dozen off of my back and kick a few that got too close. All was well so far.

After time and two sore arms we finally reached the bottom of the cold stairs. I deactivated my mask to find The Collector and Thanos gone out of sight. It was obvious they had fled the scene and let the armies manage us with failure.

I turned back and all the dark soldiers lay on the floor in piles either bleeding uncontrollably or moaning and clutching a leg or an arm. I clutch on to my Element guns tighter, turning back. Gamora stood at the top grasping her daggers and had a ferocious blue glint to her eyes.

What did they do to her?

"Gamora, it's us." I tell her cautiously and slowly take one step forward on the stairs.

"I know exactly who you are." Gamora seethes and bared her teeth with anger. "Traitors!" she shouts down at us.

"This ain't going to end well." Rocket turns to me.

I choose to ignore him. "How did we betray you, if you don't mind me asking?" I frown.

"You left me to die as we were attacked." She looks towards me. "And all of you. Selfish, greedy, worthless." She scans the other three with a look of disgust.

Groot gasps, clearly offended.

She must be hallucinating because I know for a fact that I would never leave her to die. And yes, the others may be slightly selfish at times (specifically speaking Rocket,) but that doesn't mean that they had betrayed her. Enough to be called traitors.

Gamora slowly makes her way down the stairs with her daggers. "Let us fight."

"We need to knock her out." Rocket says.

"What?" I frown.

He sighs and explains further at a quicker pace, "We need to knock her out to reset her systems. She's under some dominant influential power, similar to the energy source used to power those handcuffs."

"Got it." I nod. It was strange taking orders from a raccoon, let alone a racoon that knows how to speak, wields a gun and makes efficient plans.

Gamora started to quicken her pace and took no time in taking me on first. I grab her fist in mid-air and hesitant to harm her.

"Peter, knock the damn girl out or I'll do it for you!" Rocket sighs.

I sigh, but before I could do any damage she punches me at the jaw with her other clenched fist and then swipes me across the leg with one of her knives, swiveling skilfully around my body. I could feel a stinging wound opening up at my leg and groaned at the irritating pain it gave me. I attempt to shoot at her a few times but was too focused on _not_ killing her. If that makes any fucking sense.

Gamora hooks her leg around one of mine, bringing me to floor. A small amount of pain rushed through my spine and she climbs on top of my body, which I probably would have enjoyed if she isn't so determined to kill me right now. As she straddles me, she raises one of her knives above her head and glares down at me.

"Alright, I've had enough…" Rocket sighs. "Show's over." He says and aims his gun towards Gamora and then shoots, hitting her in the torso and off of my body. She lay unconscious on the floor.

"That's embarrassing." I nod and slowly rise to my feet looking down towards her body. "Why didn't we start off with the gun?"

"Because I enjoy people suffering." He smirks and hops down Groot's shoulder.

I reach down and scoop Gamora's unconscious and limp body in my arms. Her hair lay lazily across one half of her face and she has a small cut against her lip. She nuzzles her head against my chest, which I silently smile too and hope that the others didn't notice.

"Now what are we supposed to do?" Drax raises a brow.

"Who's up for a party?" Rocket suggests eagerly.

"I am Groot." Groot sighs and shakes his hand, covering half of his face with his hand.

"I am not going to get drunk. It's a celebration party, I'm not that irresponsible." He shoots back.

"Oh, really?" I ask sarcastically.

"I'm Groot." Groot smiles, and folds his arm looking down at Rocket.

"I was only joking about the fountain water. We needed a distraction!" Rocket refuses.

A strange sound of electro swooshing filled our ears, and vibrated through our brains and followed by the light thud of feminine footsteps. It appeared as though the sound has come from the wall that everyone has been coming from, the teleportation hot-spot.

I raised a single gun struggling to multitask with Gamora, and everyone else raised their weapons waiting to encounter who was behind the wall.

To our surprise, a petite woman dressed in a deep purple leather outfit with cuffs at her wrists emerged from the wall looking utterly harmless, yet we continued to keep our guns raised.

She inherited long sandy blonde tousled waves that were messy and windblown in a ludicrous mess, curving around her angelic face. Her eyes were a deep blue and her skin was seemingly Terran although it could be mistaken for Xanderian. She seemed to be older than I was yet had this remaining young flare.

"I mean peace." Were the mysterious woman's first words and lowers her gun to the floor slowly.

She could have other weapons, so instead of dropping ours we lower them to our sides, glancing at one another. Where did this woman come from? Who the heck was she? And what did she want from us?

Before we could ask any questions she says, "Peter. Peter Quill?" she raises a brow and hesitantly looks towards me.

"That's me…" I frown and nod, continuing to hold Gamora.

A smile forms on her lips, causing slight wrinkles at her eyes. "I can't believe it." She whispers lightly.

Am I supposed to know her? Oh no, don't tell me she's some fling telling me that I'm the father of her baby or something because I am not in the mood for that type of drama right now.

"You've grown so much." She says and tilts her head, examines me more. Her eyes flit towards Gamora in my arms for a short moment before looking back towards me.

I am so confused.

"Peter. It's your mother."

* * *

**PLOT TWIST. Obviously it's going to be explained in the next chapter, but for now I hope you like this extra-long one. That's part of the reason why it had taken so long, apart for the excuses of homework which I now have to deal with.**

**So what do you guys think is going on? Who do you think is Peter's father? Is this too confusing for you?**

**Thank you all for the reviews, views, follows etc!**


	9. Peter's Mother

_Peter_

"My mother?"

My heart was out of control, it jumped as if prompted by an electrical surge and I shook my head slowly in disbelief. _"She's lying"_ a voice whispered in my head.

"My mom is dead." I said and narrowed my eyes at the woman, trying to figure out why anyone would want to play this kind of sick joke. She just smiled lightly.

Looking at her detail more closely I noticed that she has soft, blemish free pale skin and golden, silky, long flowing hair that begged to be so incredibly similar to my mother's. Long thick, fine lashes surround her enticing, deep forget-me-not blue, eyes and fine eyebrows crowning them. She has a small nose, and a bright red lipped smile.

The scene was quite unbelievable, shocking really and worse than getting punched in the jaw. My mind was sent reeling, unable to comprehend or process the images it was being sent by my widened eyes. I looked away, then looked back to see if she was still there. She was.

"No." I muttered, forcing myself not to believe such tricks. "You are not my mother."

"My name is Meredith Quill. I raised you until I could, Peter. You have never met your father before." She speaks kindly, her voice soft and almost motherly.

But it didn't make any sense. I remember the time she had told me that she was sick. That she had cancer. That her future was to die. This doesn't make any sense!

I remember the pain of guilt weighing down in my stomach when she died on the hospital bed, the heart rate monitor's noises echoing loudly in my mind as if it was a warning to leave. I ran, not being able to deal with all the emotions and sickening sadness, tears blurring my vision. I loved my mother so much, and we shared such a close relationship since dad was never around in the first place. He wasn't even there when I was born and forced my mother to struggle.

I was so wounded up in my thoughts I barely noticed Groot gently take Gamora's limp form away from my arms.

"But – but how?!" I stutter and watch her intently. I started to feel sick.

A small smile stretches over her lips that suddenly seemed too familiar to bear. "I'll explain everything back on the ship." She assures me.

The ship?!

"No, I want an explanation now. I watched you die!" I argued loudly.

With a long sigh and moment of debating, she opens her mouth to speak. "Your father had to leave us Peter for very good reasons. And as a gift of his departure he offered me the Infinity Stone of Time." She began.

"Infinity Stone of Time?" Rocket repeats and loudly interrupts. Groot sighs and nudges him over, so he stumbles to the floor.

"I used the Stone carelessly, sending myself back in time to listen to music, cause chaos, and even meet Captain America." She laughs slightly. "There were other people out there who wanted the Stone, Peter. Thanos, for example." She explains.

I stare at her in utter shock. I've seen some pretty crazy ass things in my life; blue people, flying spaceships, even a walking and talking tree and raccoon – but _this_ beats them all.

"They were after me, so I faked my death with the help of a few galactic friends and have been secretive about travelling so the knowledge of my existence doesn't end up with the wrong people. I've used the Stone to keep me younger and alive, and manage to keep it out of harm's way." She finishes.

"Why didn't you tell me? You knew that Yondu was to abduct me, thanks to my so called fucking father, and all this time you haven't even bothered to find me until – until _now_. You forced me through all this pain and mourning and you didn't even care!" I tell her ferociously, beginning to feel angry.

I always had thought, if I ever saw my mother again I would feel overjoyed but right now I was feeling quite the opposite.

She flinches slightly at my words. "Because I knew this would happen. You would be angry, so I waited until you were old enough to understand, but clearly I was wrong." She answers calmly. She was always so calm, I never understood her as a child and still do not.

I stare down at the ground, my mind reeling back with so many thoughts and memories.

"Have you even opened my gift yet, Peter?" she asked lightly.

"Recently." I answer simply, remembering the letter she wrote and as I read it I could hear her soft voice in my mind. The very voice speaking to me right now.

"You look so much like your father." She whispers and tilts her head to the right.

I look up at her and stare blankly.

She walks hesitantly closer towards me and I move back unintentionally. I just cannot believe my whole life was a lie, and that I was tricked in to believing my mother died of cancer. She didn't even bother to find me.

She pauses in her step and her expression only saddens for a moment before she reaches and me wraps her arms around my body, engulfing me in her natural scents that I grew up with. Vanilla and spices.

I stand stiff and still not exactly sure how to react, casting the odd stinging feeling at the rim of my eyes away by blinking a few times. After a short moment's hesitation, I feel my own arms wrapping around her smaller figure tightly.

"You're alive." I whisper.

"I never wanted to leave you." She replies in the same tone and mildly kisses me on the cheek, which I'm slightly taken aback by.

* * *

I'm still furious at her, despite the fact that she well and truly is alive.

I _should_ be happy but I'm not. I'm still angry.

She teleported us all in to her spaceship, called the Lennon after John Lennon from the hit music band, The Beatles formed in the 1960's. The spaceship was much larger and wider than the Milano, and the main colors of the exterior were red and silver. Most of the ceiling was made up of glass panels and there were various rooms for nonsense uses or absolutely nothing at all.

Advanced technologies were casted over walls and powered different areas, which particularly caught Rocket's interest of course. Groot gently set Gamora's body down at a large table, which made her stir slightly yet she still didn't awake. I walked over to the table and slipped my hand in to hers. Like Rocket had said, she would be fine as soon as she awoke.

For the first time, I think my mother finally took notice of the others and stared at Groot's eight foot tall tree form with widened eyes. Groot seemed amused by this as he noticed her gaze and said,

"I'm Groot."

"Nice to meet you, I'm Meredith." She slowly introduced, still intrigued and confused by Groot's fascinating anatomy. Mom stepped took a step closer and tilted her head at Groot. _Mom_… it felt so strange to label her like that after all these years. Twenty six years.

Twenty six years she let me suffer.

"I'm Groot." Groot repeated with a smile.

"I- I know." Mom muttered, and screwed up her eyebrows. "I'm Meredith."

"I'm Groot." Groot nodded.

"Are you just messing with me?"

"I'm Groot."

"Missus Quill, you see Groot here only knows a few words. Specifically speaking, three words if you haven't picked up on that yet." Rocket explains, from on top of the table.

"Oh, and I'm Rocket." He quickly adds.

Mom turns towards Rocket and her mouth hangs open, "A talking raccoon?"

"Seriously. What the fuck is a raccoon?" Rocket asks.

"My name is Drax. It is an honour to meet the mother of Peter Quill." Drax bows his head respectively.

My mother utters a small thanks and a graceful smile laces her lips as she turns to Gamora who lay almost lifeless along her table.

"And this is…the daughter of Thanos?" she raises an expectant brow, peering over my shoulder to take a closer glimpse of Gamora's poor form.

"Adoptive daughter of Thanos." I point out quickly and let my hand slip away from Gamora's.

"What ever happened to her?" she asks quietly as she takes her limp wrist, and frowns suddenly. "She's cold."

I don't think anyone knows how to explain what had happened to her so we all remain quiet.

"Dawnae!" my mother calls to someone, as she turns Gamora's wrist over in her hands. A yellow-skinned Xanderian woman, around my mother's age, enters through one of the doors. She has short brunette hair with a red streak through the front and her eyes a large and gold coloured framed with long dark lashes.

My mother has other people on her ship?

"Yes, milady?" the woman, barely known as Dawnae, speaks and clasps her hands at the front.

"Complete the stages of restoration on this woman specifically speaking her respiratory, skeletal, nervous, and circulatory systems. Be sure to check for any vital injuries or illnesses, and then complete a status report." My mother orders and releases Gamora's wrist, taking a step back.

Dawnae steps closer towards the table and stares down at Gamora, pressing two fingers to her open palm and feeling for a pulse. "She inherits an incredibly rapid heartbeat yet her skin is below average temperature." Dawnae mutters and her fingers reach under the table, creating a small click.

Holograms light up above Gamora's body, a vast outline of her body shape appears with other forms of medical nonsense such as words and images of internal organs. A monitor of her heart beat appears along the side running at an unbelievable 346 bpm per minute.

"Her heartbeat…" Drax notices.

"Yes, it is incredibly fast. I'm not exactly sure how she is remaining at this point." Dawnae says casually and controls the holograms; sweeping past various organ data with a concerned look.

"What?" I whisper, and feel my own pulse quicken.

"I am Groot…" Groot utters sympathetically and Rocket sighs, crawling up to his shoulder.

"Don't say crap like that, Groot." Rocket replies quietly.

"Oh, I see." Dawnae nods and zooms in the hologram outline of her body. A shimmering blue substance interrupts her blood circulation, flowing throughout her entire body.

"A threatening energy substance, flows throughout her veins and is creating delusions in her brain." She frowns and investigates the hologram some more. "The Tesseract. It has infected her mind, her unconsciousness has seemed to remove partial evidence of its existence yet it still remains." She explains and looks across to each of us.

"So, she'll be okay. Right?" I ask quickly and move closer towards the table.

Dawnae keep her eyes trained on Gamora's body and then slowly looks up towards me, but doesn't say anything.

I keep telling myself, that she'll be okay, although now I feel like I'm only lying to myself.

"The dangerous energy levels will subside after time, just give her a few hours of rest. And if not…" Dawnae trails off and swallows, glancing up to my mother.

"Are you in need of any more assistance, milady?" she asks quietly.

"No, thank you." Mom mutters.

Dawnae bows her head lightly and leaves the room from the way she had come.

"Peter," Mom says and looks towards me, wanting to speak.

No, I didn't want her sympathy. She barely knows me.

"No, mom. Just…leave me alone." I tell her and walk off into a room I did not know the purpose of. The room was empty except for a few metallic chairs and the glass ceiling providing the glistening light of the stars.

"Peter!" I hear Mom's muffled shout.

I ignore them all as I sit on the closet chair, and place the headphones over my ears, playing the current track of the cassette player and wrap my face in my hands.

_I'm not in love  
So don't forget it  
It's just a silly phase I'm going through  
And just because  
I call you up  
Don't get me wrong, don't think you've got it made_

* * *

**Merely taken some effort in to, I'm sorry. I was just able to finish my homework so afterward I will be posting more frequently. **

**Meredith Quill explantion:  
Peter's mother did actually appear in Captain America, although I'm not entirely sure if Laura Haddock plays as the same character as she did in Guardians of the Galaxy – but I had thought it would be fascinating to add in, so I hope it makes sense. If you would like to see an image of Peter's mother meeting Captain America, a link is available on my profile page.**

**Thank you for all the reviews, follows, etc.! Yes, we will still be seeing Peter's father and the Infinity Stone of Time. But what are you thinking so far?**


	10. Good Morning

_Peter_

_Beep, beep, beep._

I watch the hologram heartbeat monitor jump quickly in rhythm with each dangerously fast '_beep_'. Her heart rate could compromise or demolish the effectiveness of blood circulation, or that's what Dawnae had told me. I think what she was trying to tell me was, that Gamora was going to die.

Groot, Rocket and Drax had wandered to a separate part of the ship, with my mother. Last night, I didn't mean to, but I yelled at her. She started crying and walked out of the room, and afterwards I felt so guilty. It was happening all over again – being told that someone I love is going to die. All these emotions bubbling inside of me and transforming me in to an emotional wreck, just waiting for someone to say the wrong thing and _bang_, I explode.

I will apologize to her later, I guess. She is my mother, and I've been wishing to see her again but…

I grasp on to Gamora's hand tighter, and with my other I brush the hair out of her closed eyes. Her hands were icy cold and yet her heart beat pumped so much blood through her body, it frightened me.

"I'm so sorry for everything," I whispered, and my eyes flitted to her face. The cut on her lip was starting to heal.

"I shouldn't have let us split up." I say quietly, and caress my thumb over her hand. The _beep_ on the monitor begun to slow down slightly, yet it was still fast.

"I should've have taken you to hospital, instead of taking you here. And I shouldn't have… let you go." I continue, and then sigh quietly. Her heartbeat slows down even more, returning to a normal pace. Maybe this is the phase where her heart fails, and she dies.

My hand falls from her loose grasp, and I bite down on my tongue.

"You know, even though I joke around and crap, I just want to let you know that you're something special." I tell her. I didn't even know if she was in there somewhere, if she could hear me, but I continued. I needed this off of my chest.

"I know that we all think we're immortal, everyone in the galaxy forces themselves to believe that. We're supposed to feel that way. We're freakin' heroes. The future is and should be bright, but, what makes life valuable is that it doesn't last forever, what makes it precious is that it – it… ends." I say quietly.

"I know that now more than ever, I couldn't understand twenty six years ago. Time is luck. And, Gamora, I love you."

Her heartbeat slows even more and I burry my face in my hands, feeling the weird stinging feeling in my eyes again.

Gamora. The most dangerous woman in the galaxy, and the adoptive daughter of Thanos. She listened to me, unlike no one else. She treated me like no other girl. She knew how to stand up for herself and fight like a maniac, yet when it came to the time she was reserved and calm. She doesn't deserve to die!

"You better have meant all those things you said, because I'll kill you if you were joking." I hear a familiar voice speak. Great, now I'm hearing voices and I'm going crazy.

I feel a semi cold hand roughly slip in to mine. This time I look up.

Gamora's head was turned towards me, her hair continuing to fall over her face. Her deep brown eyes fluttered in irritation, due to the light, and her skin shone its regular and loveable green color. Her mouth twitched at the edges, and it was obvious she was fighting off a smile.

"Gamora!" I shout with disbelief at her consciousness. My eyes widened and I leaned back in the seat, my eyes flitting to the heart rate monitor hologram which was slowing down because she was recovering not dying.

"Good morning, Peter." Gamora sing-songs quietly, reminding me of our first kiss.

"I – I thought…" I stutter and no words come out of my mouth.

"You're right, we don't live forever." She says, and pushes her body up off the table. "But you're one of the reasons why I believe we do."

"Is that your way of saying that you love me?" I raise a brow, and smile lightly. I rise to my feet too.

"Don't flatter yourself, Quill." She mutters and slowly leans forward.

She's tentative to kiss me, gradually moving closer as she stares down at my lips. Her nose brushes past mine and that's when our lips met. It wasn't like any of our last two. This time it was soft and gentle but at the same time passionate. But all the same, I felt strange and jittery inside. I wrap my hands around her small waist and spin her in the air as our lips were connected.

"Someone's getting a little confident." I pull back from the kiss and mutter against her lips.

Gamora doesn't respond, and just smirks.

"The heart-rate monitor just disappeared in the control room! Is she – ",

Dawnae pauses in her tracks and glances up to the distance between Gamora and me, a slight blush rising to her cheeks.

"You're – you're alive?!" she whispers quietly. "How can this be? The Tesseract is an Infinity Stone!" Dawnae exclaims with protest. "It was infecting your systems!"

"Well," another voice erupts from the hallway. "We're the Guardians of the Galaxy." Rocket appears from another hallway, walking beside Drax and Groot.

"Nice to have you back, Gamora." Rocket says quietly.

Gamora nods with a small smile at Rocket's affectionate behaviour.

"I am Groot." Groot joins in. "An honest pleasure." Drax mutters and smiles lightly.

"We may fail sometimes and look like total losers in the process, but we will always try again." I say and stretch my hand forward, indicting to do that cliché thing I watched on television back on Earth where they all put their hands in the centre as each person said some cheesy punch line or whatever.

They all look at me funny, especially Drax. "What are you doing?" he asks, and stares down at my hand.

"You know guys, I get that you're not from Terra or anything but surely you should know how to put your hands in the middle of a circle?" I raise a brow.

Drax still seems slightly confused but the others seem to mildly understand.

"And together," Gamora says placing her hand on top of mine, leaving a lingering look towards me.

"We will stick together until the end of time." Drax adds his hand on top.

"I am Groot." Groot smiles and slowly puts his wooden hand on top of Drax's.

"And stick our hands in a circle like a bunch of idiots, because why the fuck not?" Rocket finishes and adds his paw to Groot's hand.

"Rocket." Gamora stares at Rocket with a pointed and stern look in her eyes.

Rocket just smirks.

"Now why don't we go pay a certain Collector a visit?" he says.

* * *

"Mom," I begin as I enter the room. Her back was to the door and she was staring out the window with her hand clasped behind her back. I shouldn't have been so hard on her.

"Yes, Peter?" she asks calmly, but I can hear an edge of sadness to her voice.

"Listen, I shouldn't have yelled at you like that." I say quietly and she turns around to look at me with a sad look in her similar blue eyes. "Before I leave, I just want to let you know that no matter how many times I yell at you, that you are still my mother. I still love you." I say. A small smile, that doesn't quite reach the regular glint her eyes, forms on her lips.

"Just, be safe." She whispers and I can see her bite the inside of her cheek.

Suddenly, I feel her arms wrap tightly around my body. "I'm so sorry, Peter! I shouldn't have left you!" she apologizes frantically for approval.

I laugh slightly, "I will love you, no matter what." I tell her and wrap my own arms around her.

"You better." She whispers in to my neck and I can't help but laugh again.

* * *

**Next chapter is big. You know, I keep saying Peter's father is going to appear in the next chapter and the next and the next (on so forth), but I'm just going to go with flow and see when he appears if that makes any sense. **

**I'm beginning to write a new fan-fiction about Rocket, Groot and an OC. It's about how he manages to escape prision twenty-two times and also meet one of his first 'friends', besides Groot of course. Interesting? Like, should I bother?**

**Thank you all once again for the reviews, follows, favourites, etc! So close to 100! This may or may not seem like a lot to others but it defiantly means a lot to me because it is my first fan-fiction that has reached over 50 reviews.**

**Sorry for the long Author's note, I just wanted to let you know I'm very grateful for all your feedback and criticism. **


	11. Peter's Father

_Gamora_

When the smoke bomb had been released back in Titan I felt myself drop to floor, fall out of consciousness and then I couldn't exactly remember much after that.

What I do remember is opening my eyes to blue handcuffs and someone shouting my name, then Thanos and the dark soldiers. It was an unconscious blur in between those moments. As I awoke again, I had witnessed a strangely shaped dagger, looking incredibly similar to mine. Coming to think of it, I believe it was one of mine. They had the Tesseract with them and I wanted to wake up and do something about it, but my muscles felt limp and I couldn't keep my eyes wide open for a few minutes.

Then they stabbed my dagger in to the Tesseract, and the blue power flowed through the metal. They were talking about something then. I could hear them, but I was too drowsy to comprehend their words. Afterwards, the solider that held my dagger approached me wearing a smirk and chuckling while Thanos gave him orders.

I awoke once more to the cold and sharp point of blade sliding across my face, and sliding across the tip of my nose and then my jawline. Finally, the sharpest end sunk deep in to my lip and the solider slipped the dagger back in to my boot holder with my blood still on the tip.

"You won't be kissing your precious Peter Quill now." I remember the words of the being that sliced me.

Cold deep crimson blood dribbled slowly down my face, and although the knife's sharp point didn't exactly injure me much the Tesseract's power burned through my veins and causing me to scream. I could hear the beat of my heart rise faster and faster, and got to the point where I just blacked out.

I was out for hours, under the control of someone else. I watched everything that I had done but couldn't physically do anything about it. And it hurt.

The next thing I know, I black out completely thanks to Rocket. I'm in a state of complete darkness and utter silence, except for the noise of my own thoughts. After some time, I'm beginning to hear words again, in Peter's voice. I didn't have the strength to properly awake, so instead I chose to listen to what he had to say. And I'm glad I did. No one has ever told me that they love me before. _No one_.

I had my mother who probably would have said something along the lines, but I was too young to remember most of her words. And besides, I don't like thinking of my mother since she brings back tragic memories.

Peter Quill loves me…

* * *

We had returned to Titan, with the help of a woman who called herself Peter's mother, to collect the Milano. Peter talked to me; clarifying the appearance of his mother, the betrayal of Taneleer, and he also explained how I managed to gain the minor cut on his leg – although I had already told him that I was aware of those actions.

I am furious with Thanos.

"When I get my hands on that Collector, I'm going to RIP HIM APART!" Rocket yelled from the back seat, and demonstrated with his paws viciously.

"Calm down. The Collector is basically another Ronan, another one of Thanos's puppets." I tell Rocket calmly, as I help Peter steer the ship.

"Another one of his puppets that will be ripped to shreds." Rocket mutters under his breath.

I turn around to look at him and he just smirks back at me. I roll my eyes and turn back to the front, sliding holographic panels to help control the ship's speed.

"Gamora," Drax says, and I pause to turn around once more. "I will take care of the ship's speed, so you shall rest, especially after yesterday's events." He offers.

"No, it's fine. I'm fine."

"He's right. Just relax, okay?" Peter chimes in and turns to look at me with a small smile.

With a moment's consideration, I sigh and nod my head. I lean back in my seat and slide out both of my blades from the belt holders against my boots. One had a blue streak through the sharp edge, and it was clearly the one harassed by the Tesseract. I slipped the other dagger back in to its place. The blade I held felt heavier and sent vibrations of power through my fingertips, creating a light buzz. I frowned and turned the dagger over and over, weighing it in my hands.

"Something wrong?" Peter asks, but doesn't look my way. He is concentrating on the ship.

I glance down at the dagger once more.

"Not at all." I answer and slide the dagger back, and I see Peter nod.

"So where exactly are we going, Quill?" Rocket calls out.

"I freakin' told you. We are going to back to Knowhere, to check if he is there." Peter answers irritably.

Rocket laughs, "As if he's going to be there!"

"Well do you have anything better, Ranger Rick?"

"Ranger Rick?"

"Terran 1980 raccoon character with…It doesn't matter." Peter sighs.

"Whatever…but do you seriously think that weirdo is going back to the first place that we would look?" Rocket asks.

"I repeat; we are only going to check." Peter says firmly and the ship travels the faster.

"Yeah, yeah…" Rocket mumbles.

Soon after, the Celestial's decapitated head otherwise known as Knowhere can be seen in distance, and swarmed by a dark blanket of the galaxy's darkest skies with explosions of purples, greens and blues, sprinkled with the light of stars.

"Here goes nothing." Peter says and turns to look at me.

* * *

The Collector loves to live up to his name, as his cages and archives are full with a bunch of goodies from all around the universe. If it's rare, exotic, or just really sought after, he'll want it for his own. And yet, what's rarer than the Infinity Stones? A force of power that every power-hungry maniac in their right mind wants to get their hands on at the moment, scattered across the universe in only six limited edition pieces; the Infinity Gauntlet is the ultimate trophy for the man who wants to have everything. Why didn't we see it coming beforehand? Why did we even trust him?

"So, do we just…" Peter looks at us all for permission as he raises his fist to the door.

"Knock." Drax says.

Peter pauses before he knocks on the steel door, setting rattles through the building and a loud echo over the silence. It only takes a few seconds before that Xanderian slave, Anaconda, activates the door to open.

"Sincere apologies my visitors but –" she begins and then looks up at us all. A horrified expression replaces her friendly and welcoming smile. "Oh no."

"Oh no, indeed." Rocket says tauntingly.

"Anaconda!" a very familiar voice calls from inside and the servant freezes, staring at us all as in fear.

"Y-yes, master?" she answers quietly.

"What is taking you so long?"

Before Anaconda has time to answer, Rocket sighs and slips through the door between Anaconda's feet.

"Rocket!" I hiss.

Soon enough, Groot follows. Then Drax and of course Peter. I glance towards Anaconda and nod my head awkwardly before brushing past her and entering the museum.

The Collector is working at a table, with some form of mechanics. Anaconda slowly closes the door and follows us inside.

"I knew I would see you all once again." He says in his regular slow and oddly pausing pace, his back still turned.

"You betrayed us!" Drax shouts.

"You're working for the purple loser!" Rocket joins in.

"Have we not already talked over this?" he asks and turns around to reveal himself, looking even more tired and bored than he usually does.

"We have come to take back what is rightfully ours!" Rocket raises his gun.

"And that is?"

"Vengeance," Rocket answers. "And a whole lot of pain." He smirks.

The Collector laughs, a deep hollow laugh that sounded dark and eerie. "Are you sure you want to do this?" he asks before.

"Yes." Rocket, Drax and Peter say in a union and I sigh.

"Very well…" Taneleer mutters.

Darkness begins to swarm our vision and screeching sound stings through the air. As the darkness gradually dissipates, a dark figure replaces Taneleer's spot. The figure was made of dark shadows and utter blackness that seemed to suck the soul out of your body. And then there were his claws; dragging across the steel floor, sharp and powerful. The only features recognisable on his face were a pair of red glowing holes that represented something like headlights.

I think Taneleer Tivan just transformed in to this monster.

"You…" Peter whispers. "You were the…"

I frown slightly, attempting to get an understanding of what was going on at the moment.

"Yes, I was in your nightmare." Replies a deep and scratchy voice, coming from the dark shadow beast, although it had no representation of a mouth.

"What are you?" I ask and stare at him with shock.

"An Elder of the Universe. I am immortal, and have been here since the beginning of time." The Collector's dark form answers.

"Okay, maybe we underestimated this guy." Rocket comments.

"You think?" Peter raises a brow.

"Fight me mortals. Is that not what you came for?" The figure moves forward, the claws scratching against the tiles.

I decide to begin first, to protect us at all costs. I take both my daggers out of my boot holder, grasping on to the Tesseract oriented one and spurt forward, jabbing the useless dagger in to his shadowed leg, so only the handle is visible.

"Gamora!" Peter yells and rushes forward, behind me.

I hear the shadow figure hiss in pain and I duck under a powerful swing from his right claw. I already seemed to figure out his tactics; he was slow, but heavily powerful and seemed to have this presence that made me feel drained, weary and emotionless – almost like The Collector himself.

Rocket, present on Groot's shoulder wielding his gun, and Drax come forward. The dark soldiers from the previous encounter sneak past cases and glass cages to battle us as well. They swarm and swing over the boxes equipped with exotic weapons and dangerous looking weapons.

"Great." I mutter as the soldiers back Taneleer up.

Where did they even come from anyway?

"Let's do this." Rocket calls out from Groot's shoulder and prepares his gun, with faint clicks and flicks of buttons and switches.

All at once, the two sides seem to collide together and the noise erupts like a massive wave of battle shouts, shadow and darkness. The presence makes me feel incredibly…dead, is a way to put it.

Groot, Rocket, Drax and Peter begin to attack back at the crowds. Peter activates his mask as he battles beside me, using his usual Element Guns.

I begin to attack a handful of Thanos's members. I kick one back in the chest and knock out the ones behind me with a back walk-over. They all started to groan on the floor and I manage not to smile. A sudden pain blooms in my left foot and as I look up, I realise that one of them had shot me. Bad choice.

I spring forward and slit the blue-streaked dagger in to the opponent's waist with a quick flick, and then hold its body up from crumpling to the ground. It probably would die. I barely expected myself to survive through the Tesseract's dangerous juices.

I slowly let go of his leather collar and its eyes flicker a piercing blue before it crumples to the ground. Dead, just as I expected.

Pain continues to shoot up my left foot as I step back. I wince slightly and raise my foot, a small deep red imprint leaving a mark. I decide to carry on, despite the stinging pain shooting up my leg.

Suddenly, I watch as The Collector's dark form grab hold of Peter and then he tightens his grip around Peter's leather clothing. I can almost see the life being sucked out of his body, his two Element Guns dropping towards the floor with a loud clatter. I gasp, and stop what I'm doing.

Groot, Rocket and Drax continue to fight the mounds of malicious troopers, without knowledge of Peter's disaster.

I run towards the two, but a powerful force pushed me back in to the wall. Searing fiery bursts pulsated through my back, intensifying with each attempt to move, jarring and brutal. With each attempt of recovery the pain amplified, the bloody muscles in my body quivered, my consciousness ebbed. Black mists swirled at the edges of my mind drawing me into sweet oblivion.

I flighted against it and barred my teeth, blinking my eyes back open and removing the salty tears that had formed.

Anaconda stood timidly behind a glass case that trapped a massive blue butterfly, and held a powerful looking gun. Then I knew it was her who had shot me. I narrow my eyes and forced myself upwards. She flinched and ran off elsewhere, deep in to the museum. I would have to take care of her nonsense later.

I turned back to Peter and the nothingness of Taneleer, who were beginning to fight. Taneleer tripped Peter with his long dark claws and I pressed my lower lip in between my teeth. I tried taking a step but ended up tripping over some rubble beneath my feet, caused by Anaconda's powerful gun shot. I slowly pushed myself back up, wincing at the pain that bloomed in my body. I watched as Taneleer raised his long dark claws, about to ruin Peter.

"Peter!" I yelled.

Regret washed over me like the long slow folds of water in a fountain. Each wave was icy cold and sent shivers down my spine. How I longed to go back and take a different path, but now that was impossible. There was no way back. There was no way to make it right. The remorse would eat at me every day of my life. He could be dead by now.

I couldn't bear to look. But I did. And what I saw almost frightened me.

A man, taller than Peter, battled in front of Peter's tired body as if to _save_ him. He had tousled chestnut hair, bright blue eyes, and tanned skin. Who was this man and where did he come from?

He projected a glowing red energy light, in the form of a shield in front of him and knocked Taneleer backwards. The shield then transformed in to the form of a sharp sword, and the man moved forward to slice his opponent. He was a magic user of some sort.

With ease he bought Taneleer's dark form to the floor and brang the transparent crimson concocted sword to his throat threatingly.

"Since when are you to be fighting under Thanos's will?" the mysterious man asks and pushes the sword closer to the dark shadow figure's neck.

"What does it matter to you?" The Collector answers, viciously.

One of Thanos's fighters slowly evade up behind the man with a thick knife, slowly spinning at his fingertips. My eyes widen and without thinking I throw my dagger at the intruding soldier's body, and it sinks deep in to his rib cage. Only seconds later, the body sinks to the floor now cold and dead.

The mysterious man notices the dead body behind him and his eyes flicker to me, his piercing eyes scanning my appearance respectively. He outstretches a hand towards me and flicks his wrist. A sudden burst of air fills my lungs and I'm hauled quickly to my feet. The pain, wounds, and bruises fade away in to my skin and restore me to full health. I raise my fingers to touch my bottom lip to feel for the cut, but it too has disappeared.

I run towards Peter's body, kneeling at his side. He was still breathing, evident by his movement and the sound of breathing echoing against his steel mask – but is he conscious? It took me a moment to figure out how to deactivate the mask from his face. His eyes flickered open, but he squinted under the light. His face seemed slightly drained of color and the dark circles were more prominent under his deep blue eyes.

"Gamora?" he whispered hoarsely.

"Peter." I confirmed and tentatively reached out to touch his face. "A-are you alright?" I asked and then moved my hand towards his chest. My heart beats inside my chest and I begin felt nervous.

He laughs lightly, and presses his hand on top of mine. "Yeah." He answers.

Taneleer growls at the man.

"You are foolish to be wasting your sorcery like such. Join us, and you too shall earn the respect of billions." Taneleer says darkly.

"Join you? And what? Forever suffer in Thanos's slavery?" the man questions and shakes his head with decline. "Have a good time rotting in Hel, immortal." He says and with a single agile movement, the sword seeps deep beneath the shadows of Taneleer's monstrous form. He doesn't even make a sound as his murky limbs go weak and his red eyes roll in to bottomless black pits of darkness just like the rest of his carcass. I believe Taneleer Tivan is dead.

The energy sword of the man fades too, and he stands to his full height and looks back at Peter and me with an expression I cannot place.

"Who are you?" I ask quietly.

"My name is Adam." The man says and his eyes flicker up towards Groot, Rocket and Drax who have killed all the dark soldiers and were now staring at the scene silently.

"Adam Warlock." He says. "I don't mean harm."

Peter pushes his body up, and rises to his feet, pulling me up with him.

"After reuniting with Meredith, I believe I have a son." He continues and glances directly towards Peter.

"Not this crap again…" Rocket groans.

* * *

**There you go. I finished this chapter in a matter of hours so I apologize for any mistakes. I've already planned out the sequel, which I'm totally pumped about. In my opinion, I think it will be better than this story – but I haven't written it yet so I cannot say anything. I probably won't be posting for a few days either, I'm going to have a little break and do some more planning for the sequel. **

**What do you guys think so far? Opinions on Peter's father? What are you expecting in the sequel?**

**Thanks for 100+ reviews! **


	12. The End

_Peter_

It had been about ten months later before everything returned to normal. But then again, nothing was normal with the Guardians of the Galaxy.

The Collector had been brought to justice by my father, and Nova had arrested anyone who was involved with the crimes, without trial; such as Anaconda. The Tesseract was found in Asgard and forced to be taken by the Nova Corps and into their safety. It took some time to convince the Asgardians, but soon enough they had agreed. We have not heard from Thanos or any of his loyal slaves so far and I don't think that we will anytime soon.

It had seemed as though, after sharing conversations with my mother, we have a lot of stuff in common and I don't think she has changed since we were back on Terra. When she found out that I still have her cassette player and headphones, she got a little emotional. She enjoyed spending time with, not only me, but the others. Gamora for example. My mother thought our relationship was 'cute', and embarrassed me in public situations.

And as for my father, who I have not yet forgiven, he lives with my mother on their ship, the Lennon. I don't know if I'll ever be able to forgive him, for leaving my mother in danger on Terra with an Infinity Stone. She was the prey of colossal monsters such as Thanos in the galaxy. How could he do that to her? Plus, he didn't even bother to pick me up himself from Terra. He just hired the Ravagers.

The first time we met, we kind of fought each other and that's when I discovered my other talents. He called it quantum magic. And although I hated his guts, I allowed him to train me to use these powers responsibly or whatever. After the effects of the Orb, they collected a massive impact on my quantum magic making me more powerful than predicted – or that's what my 'father' had told me.

Rocket started to help Nova create weapons and defensive mechanisms, and receive a large amount of pay of course. He and Groot have managed to even complete missions on their own in the galaxy at some stages, boosting their already powerful reputation. Drax still yearns for Thanos's death although we have not heard from the beast since.

And as for Gamora and I, we are happy. We are in love. We are married, and have somehow got ourselves tangled with a pair of twin children…

* * *

_Third Person_

"They will pay for what they have done." a large booming voice echoed across the vast land, cloaked in an eternal darkness that promised doom.

"The Avengers are nothing compared these Guardians of the Galaxy…" the voice continued. "We need everything. Everyone, against them."

"We need the armies from the furthest of galaxies to ruin them. After their deaths they need to be ruined. Destroyed!"

Nebula, the sister of Gamora, stood to the side and listened intensively as she tightly grasped on to her weapons with a growing blood thirst.

"But most of all, I need…the children." A cruel and sinister smirk crawled on to the lips of Thanos.

"Yes, my Greatness." A voice responded. Taneleer Tivan chuckled deeply.

"They will all fall."

* * *

**Shortest chapter ever, but I am super excited for the sequel and couldn't wait! Thank you all so much for reading, although most of the chapters are incredibly rushed and have not been my best presentation of skills – I apologize. I promise you the sequel will be so much better and I will include more effort and description.**

**The reviews, favourites, and follows have kept me going so I thank you all for contributing and helping me on this crazy journey! The sequel will be posted ASAP (:**

**- Dark-prisim **


	13. Author's Note

**Author's Note: The sequel has already been posted under the name of ****_Younger Than Yesterday_****, I hope you enjoy it. I am putting more effort in to it; the chapters will be longer. And if the first chapter bores you, I'm sorry, it's only explaining things. But thanks for reading! :)**


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